Berisha reassures Thaci of Tirana’s support

TIRANA, Aug. 1 – Prime Minister Sali Berisha on Sunday had lunch with his neighboring counterpart Hashim Thaci of Kosovo to discuss on the recent developments in the new state.
Berisha was on vacation at the resort in Dhermi, southwest Albania.
The two prime ministers talked at length about the recent developments in the Northern border of Kosovo.
Berisha said that his government was closely following the situation created there and assured Tha詠of their full support to the decisions of the Kosovo government guaranteeing the national sovereignty, the constitutional order and its territorial integrity.
The two prime ministers shared the same view that the criminal acts in northern Kosovo were incited and supported by ultra nationalist circles in Belgrade and clearly pose the danger of the ghost of Greater Serbia for peace and stability in the region.
Berisha expressed his support for the Kosovo decision, based on the principle of reciprocity, to ban Serbian goods from entering its territory.
Berisha also reassured Tha詠that Albania would provide Kosovo with all port and other facilities so that the country copes with Serbia’s embargo on it with the smallest consequences.
Berisha appreciated as indispensable the scaling down of the actual tension between Kosovo and Serbia and considered important the creation of all conditions for the successful continuation of the dialogue and the negotiations, in the framework of the Brussels process between equal sides and quite important for the two countries, but also for peace and stability in the region.
Thaci also said that any trend of reopening the issue of borders means great negative consequences for the whole region.
Clashes last week erupted in Serb-run north Kosovo after Kosovo police special units tried to take control of two border checkpoints and enforce a recent embargo on Serbian goods.
A mob of angry Serbs from the town of Mitrovica burned down the Jarinje border crossing, prompting intervention by KFOR troops, which have since taken control of the two border checkpoints between Serbia and Kosovo.
Belgrade has maintained an embargo on Kosovo exports for the past three years since the former province of Serbia declared independence in 2008. Negotiations sponsored by the EU have so far failed to find a solution to the trade dispute.