A strategic idea that must be developed and supported, but does Italy have a concrete plan?
By ALBERT RAKIPI*
With Italian mediation, the foreign ministers of Albania and Serbia met in mid-January in Rome. This was the first meeting after the announcement of an Italian initiative to play a mediating role in the relationship between Serbia and Albania.
Italy itself had sought to be an intermediary between the two Western Balkan countries. It was then Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino who first spoke about the need for a third party mediator between Tirana and Belgrade.
Last summer, during a tour of the region as part of the EU Italian Presidency, Federica Mogherini, who succeeded Emma Bonino at the helm of the Italian foreign ministry, said in Tirana and then in Belgrade that Italy is ready and wants to play a mediating role between Albania and Serbia. These public statements in Tirana and Belgrade created some confusion in the two capitals at first, because neither country had requested a third-party mediation. It further seemed like a paradox because Albania and Serbia had no apparent issue that needed international mediation.
If we exclude the issue of Kosovo, on which Albania and Serbia have agreed not to agree, the two countries practically have no other issue that may prevent the normal development of bilateral relations.
Since February 2008, Kosovo is an independent state and is currently recognized by 110 countries, including almost all states that are governed by democratic systems. These include all EU member countries, with the exception of Greece, Spain, Romania, Cyprus, Slovakia — most members of the UN Security Council, with China and Russia excluded — and it has also been recognized as an independent state by all neighboring countries, with the exception of Serbia.
Thus, the only issue on which Albania and Serbia are categorically different, has been left out of the bilateral agenda. Even before the independence of Kosovo and its immediate recognition by the United States and European powers, Albania and Serbia had developed bilateral relations. Specifically, Tirana had been very active with the former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ilir Meta to establish an increased communication with Serbia, despite Serbia’s attitude toward Kosovo, before and after its independence and international recognition. Moreover, Serbia and Kosovo during the last two or three years have held talks at the level of heads of government and have reached agreements with the mediation of the European Union.
So, if there are no disputes between Tirana and Belgrade beyond Kosovo, what is it that requires the mediation of a third party? What does Rome want to mediate?
The Italian proposal to play a mediating role in the summer of last year at first glance seemed useless and vague also due to the fact that relations between Albania and Serbia seemed to have entered into a trend of almost normal relations, with growth in economic ties and increased communication in the field of culture, while political relations were set to reach the highest level in decades with a high-level meeting of the two prime ministers in Belgrade, which was scheduled for early October 2014.
The Italian proposal for the need of a third party mediator in building the future of Albanian-Serb relations remained almost in the shadow of the diplomatic and European media focus on the visit of Prime Minister of Albania to Belgrade, the first of its level after nearly 70 years.
However, developments that accompanied the serious incidents in the football match between the two national teams in Belgrade revealed a hidden reality that had been neglected in the public relations between Albania and Serbia. In less than 24 hours the two countries slipped back into a situation entirely similar to that of the Cold War.
The perfect storm mixed Balkan-style conspiracy theories with a low professional level in diplomacy.
The Serbian Prime Minister’s Office hurried to declare an Albanian plot to destabilize Serbia and the whole region and directly implicated the brother of Prime Minister of Albania. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Albania, under alarm, used instruments that made some recall the ways of communist Albania during the Cold War. (Parallel to the urgent call to the ministry of the Ambassador of Serbia and Albania protest notes to Serbia, Albania sent an official protest note to Montenegro, after the Albanian embassy there was attacked).
Under the conditions of this sudden tension in Albania-Serbia relations, the visit of Prime Minister Rama in Belgrade came into question. If the visit failed, it would, in fact, not preserve the status quo, but be a step backward in relations between the two countries.
To avoid the deterioration of relations, Mogherini’s Italian Idea, the intervention of a third party, resurfaced.
Despite the fact that the Prime Minister of Albania was determined to make the visit to Belgrade, it would not have been possible without the intervention of European diplomacy. Such an intervention by German Chancellor Angela Merkel was neither confirmed nor denied by her office as well as Belgrade and Tirana.
Practically speaking, a further deterioration of relations between Albania and Serbia was possible, and thus an intervention of a third party was needed, serving as proof of the merits of the idea presented by the Italian diplomats a few months earlier.
The argument that everything that happened in Belgrade during the match between the national teams and further developments were mere incidents, do not weaken the Italian idea of the necessity of a third party in the relationship between the two key Western Balkan countries.
The idea is also not necessarily weakened by the fact that the two countries have no particular important issue that strongly divides them, as is, for example, the case of the name issue in relations between Macedonia and Greece, for which international mediation is already taking place.
Certainly, the drone flight in the stadium was a mere incident, but the dramatic political developments that followed after the incident clearly showed that Serbia and Albania continue to have a strong culture and myth of hostility in their relations. Moreover, the two countries — both societies, political elites and not only — are not able to overcome this culture and this myth without the help of third parties, such as Italy or the European Union.
Reconciliation of Albanians and Serbs in the Balkans is essential for the stability, the security and the future of the entire region. Albania and Serbia, the two centers in the region, could lead the reconciliation between the two peoples.
To make the first steps towards the reconciliation of the two countries, it now appears there is a need for a third-party mediator. It is clear that this would not be a traditional mediation, in which a third party mediates for a consensus on contentious issue between the two countries, like a border or territorial dispute.
The role of a third party in the relations between Albania and Serbia has to do with a fundamental strategic issue for the European future of the entire region.
But is Italy ready to play that role? What concrete instruments does it propose? What role might Mogherini now have, sitting at the helm of the entire European Union’s foreign policy?
“Italy supports Serbia’s and Albania’s membership in the EU and is an advocate for them,” said the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs after the recent trilateral meeting in Rome.
Of course, the trilateral meeting was not held to produce a statement that would be accepted by all.
Modern mediation (not in the context of not being classic) in the conciliatory process between Albanians and Serbs in the Balkans must be based on the spirit and European values, suggesting the need for instruments, plans and concrete projects, which can be proposed and led by Italy or the European Union.
Dr. Albert Rakipi is the executive director of the Albanian Institute for International Studies and a Tirana Times associate editor.
