Royal Yorkshire Regiment makes history in the Balkans with road move into Kosovo

Soldiers from Catterick have made history by becoming the first Nato troops to be deployed along a new strategically significant road route through the Balkans.

Corridor 8 is designed to allow Nato to deploy forces quickly, and connects the Adriatic and Black Seas while running through Albania, North Macedonia and Bulgaria.

Soldiers from 1st Battalion The Royal Yorkshire Regiment have "proven the route" as the battalion deployed to Kosovo, where it will remain as part of Nato's KFOR operation until next year.

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Twenty-five years on from the conclusion of the Kosovo War, KFOR is today Nato's largest military deployment.

Now, 1 R Yorks, which earlier this year returned from an extended tour of duty in northern Iraq, has taken up the role of Nato's strategic reserve force in the country after arriving in Kosovo upon completing the road move.

Speaking to BFBS Forces News, Air Chief Marshall Lord Peach, a former chief of the defence staff and the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to the Balkans, explained how Corridor 8 was a very important strategic route through southeastern Europe to the Black Sea.

"The fact that Nato has a force in Kosovo 25 years after the end of the conflict is a sad, sad fact," he said.

"But we do need the force to honour the terms of the United Nations Security Council resolution.

"The UK is proud to commit itself to the Kosovo force, along with the work of our excellent embassy and teams on the ground, and we continue to recognise Kosovo as a nation state."

Corridor 8 starts at an Albanian military base on the coast at Durres. It was here that 1 R Yorks' kit and equipment arrived for its operational tour of Kosovo and it was from this location the historic move along the new route commenced.

Talking ahead of the road move, the battalion’s commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ed Lyons, spoke of the pride his unit had in being the first to deploy on Corridor 8.

"We're here in Albania which has been our strategic port, and we're testing and proving a new mobility corridor into Kosovo," he explained.

"We will be working with the Nato and Kosovan forces, providing support to the region. The troops are really enjoying the opportunity to serve and work with Nato. It’s a real privilege.”

1 R Yorks' deployment to Kosovo comes during a period of increased military cooperation among the UK and nations in the region.

Assisting the Yorkshiremen on the convoy were soldiers from the Albanian army, while further to the south in Vlore, a co-UK-Albania military exercise was being held encompassing several hundred personnel.

Albania has been a member of Nato since 2009. It's quite a turnaround for a country that emerged out of the Second World War under the influence of the Soviet Union.

As the Berlin Wall collapsed and the Soviet Union crumbled, Albania fell into internal turmoil in the 1990s which culminated in a civil war.

Today, Albania is a changed country and its future looks firmly westward. Its integration into Nato sees Albanian military officers frequently training in places like Sandhurst and the UK Defence Academy.

The current deployments across the Balkans underline the country's place as a major partner in the region.

UK ambassador Nick Abbott highlighted that while in some areas the UK and Albania had held strained relations of late, militarily it was engaged in meaningful cooperation.

"It's very clear this is a partnership. We are working together with common aims. And that's really quite important to me because it's a building block in our relationship with Albania," he said.