TIRANA, Aug. 20 – Albanian Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha said that Albanian diplomacy has set clear goals during the 120 days of the re-negotiations on the Kosova status.
“During the 120-day period of the added negotiations, the Albanian diplomacy has clear goals which are rigorously followed with the main object being the decision of the EU member countries if those negotiations fail,” said Basha at a news conference Monday.
The minister said that the Albanian diplomacy has been very active recently having direct contact with all the main capitals in the world and their representatives.
He mentioned meetings he had with the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, European Union commissioner Javier Solana, Olli Rehn, and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
The minister has also toured Kosova, Montenegro and Macedonia, has taken part in summits held in Croatia, Turkey and Macedonia and has also visited Italy, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain “where Kosova was the main word of the Albania diplomacy.”
Basha claimed that Albania’s opposition to Russia’s unilateral stand on Kosova helped create the new diplomatic tactic of the other great powers.
In case of a diplomatic failure, Albania will urge support to the Ahtisaari plan so that NATO and the EU take steps to bring about change.
Albania has joint stands with neighboring countries like Macedonia and has been involved in heated debate with Serbia in different times and places, he said.
Basha said that the idea of dividing Kosova belonged to the mentality of Slobodan Milosevic and has been harshly criticized by the international community.
“Separation is an option belonging to the Milosevic period, it does not belong to the Euro-Atlantic integration of the Balkan countries. It is an option to divert attention from the inevitable course (independence). Such a course is the application of the Ahtisaari package in collaboration with NATO, EU and the U.S. and in the shortest time possible,” he said.
That was a response to voices expressed recently that a Kosova division should be accompanied with land compensation for ethnic Albanians.
The minister’s reaction was also a counter-attack to criticism of the opposition foreign relations politician Arta Dade. accusing him and this diplomacy of staying very much under the shadow and not helping at this decisive moment for Kosova.
Dade, a former foreign minister herself, considered the Albanian diplomacy on Kosova as ineffective and not transparent.
She said that Basha had not responded to parliamentary request to report to the MPs on the Kosova development.
She also mentioned Basha’s predecessor, Besnik Mustafaj, expressing his concern on the direction of the country’s diplomacy.
Kosova, considered by many Serbs as the cradle of their statehood and religion, is formally a part of Serbia. The province has been run by the United Nations and NATO since 1999, when NATO launched an air war to halt Serbia’s government onslaught on Albanian separatists.
Last week, envoys from the United States, the European Union and Russia launched a 120-day effort to end the impasse over Kosova. A new round of talks has been set for Aug. 30 in Vienna.
The new negotiation effort follows Russia’s threat to block a U.S.-backed plan to grant Kosova internationally supervised independence in the U.N. Security Council. The diplomats are to report back to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon by Dec. 10.
