[…] New members have provided support and troops for security and peacekeeping missions in the Balkans and in Afghanistan, and have sent troops to join the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, he said. "In turn, NATO membership has reassured their populations of political and military solidarity with the United States and members of the European Union, enabling them to focus on improving the well-being of their citizens rather than worrying about the types of military threats they had lived with for centuries."

[…] Kosovo’s declaration of independence ends one chapter but begins another. We must deal with short-term challenges of security and longer-term challenges of Kosovo’s development. These are serious. Many things can go wrong and some things probably will. But the status quo was unsustainable; and seeking to sustain it would have led to even greater challenges.

[…] The United States will not support any effort to partition newly independent Kosovo, a senior U.S. diplomat says. An independent Kosovo is viewed as a crucial way to enhance stability in the Balkans. "We will be absolutely opposed to partition," Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns says, whether that would take the form of a de facto or a de jure partition.

[…] In addition to its role in NATO peacekeeping, the United States actively supported the diplomatic process for many years between Kosovo and Serbia through the U.N. Security Council, the Contact Group and the subsequent “troika” talks by the European Union, Russia and the United States. But after years of deadlock, a definitive solution was essential, Burns said. Burns said that a longer delay in independence would have contributed to greater regional instability.