PRISTINA – Italian General Enrico Barduani is going to assume his role of the KFOR Commander on 11 October, at a ceremony in Pristina. Barduani will replace Turkish General Özkan Ulutaş at the helm of the NATO-led international peacekeeping force in Kosovo.
The KFOR commanders have one-year mandate and Enrico Barduani will the 29th commander of the NATO-led force in Kosovo. He has had a long career both inside and outside Italy. His latest post was in the Cabinet of Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, where he served as Chief of Defense Policy.
According to N1, Barduani served in 2001 in Kosovo as Deputy Head of the Italian intelligence Department and in 2015-2016, as Chief of Staff to the commander of the mission. Also, he was deployed to Iraq in 2004, in 2009 to Lebanon, and to Afghanistan in the period 2019-2020. In addition, Barduani was a Deputy Chief of Staff of the Minister of Defense of Italy, in charge of military political affairs. He is the 14th Italian to hold the position of KFOR commander.