BERLIN, October 3 (DPA/EP) –

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced this Monday that the German Government is monitoring the situation in Kosovo and indicated that the Army is ready to act “quickly” if tensions escalate.

“We are paying attention to this situation and will react if necessary. (Germany) can act very quickly,” said Pistorius from the German city of Braunschweig.

The German minister did not rule out increasing the contribution of German military personnel to NATO’s peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, KFOR, as the UK does, but stressed that there were no plans to increase that number at this time.

Previously, the President of the German Parliamentary Defense Committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, put forward the idea of ​​sending more German troops to KFOR.

Strack-Zimmermann emphasized that the personnel limit is 400 people, whereas currently there are 85 soldiers. “So without having to change the mandate, there is still a lot of room for improvement,” he said.

The Kosovo government last Saturday warned that the Serbian Armed Forces were massing troops in three directions near the border with the region. The move followed altercations several days earlier when armed groups entered the northern part of the region and attacked Kosovar troops, killing a police officer.

According to Pristina, the armed group’s attack was part of a “larger plan” to “annex” the region to Serbia, although Belgrade denied any involvement in this incident. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic also rejected accusations that Serbia was concentrating its troops, calling them “inventions and lies.”