The recent visit of Prime Minister Edi Rama in Serbia, first to participate in the Belgrade Security Forum, second to promote the Serbian translation of his own book and finally then to proceed to Nis for the establishment of the joint Albania-Serbia chamber of commerce, has shaken and stirred many voices in the curious triangle made of Tirana, Prishtina and Belgrade.
The visit follows several others prompted in part by the Berlin Process and sustained by what Rama claims to be a chance to reconcile two key nations in the Western Balkans. Indeed the word ‘reconciliation’ if used in the context of two states, Albania and Serbia, is the wrong word choice for these two have never fought with each other. They have not caused each other mass scale deaths, uprooting, destruction and are not formally two enemy states. However when speaking about two nations, as the Prime Minister did, one must be careful to be certain that his appropriation of that role is welcomed.
As the reactions, to the speaking that Rama did in Serbia, by both politicians and opinion makers in Kosovo showed, the role of Tirana as a key promoter of mediating for reconciliation between Belgrade in Pristina is very controversial to say the least. Many in Kosovo fear that, by taking over the dialogue, Tirana will strip Prishtina off an important role. These fears are not, as many like to say in Albania, unfounded. They have to be taken more seriously.
The reconciliation process is between Kosovo and Serbia and is already mediated by Brussels. Tirana should be engaged to provide a limited assistance and not try to score off some cheap points in the eyes of the western world. Whereas there is no doubt that the Albanian PM has all the right to speak his position about Kosovo clearly in Belgrade and wherever else, when it comes to specific details about the Belgrade-Prishtina dialogue or issues that concern those two countries, a more careful and reserved approach may prove more beneficial to all sides.
The reconciliation project stands and should stand primarily with Serbia and Kosovo in an excruciatingly difficult dialogue with many hurdles, hiccups and setbacks. Tirana should be careful while exerting its good will to help. It should not be timid about recognition of Kosovo status, yet should not overreach into issues that are best discussed in the framework of an already existing official dialogue structure.
There are simpler concrete things that Tirana can and should do about Kosovo that do not stand in the way of the current EU sponsored dialogue nor try in any, spontaneous or deliberate, way to mimic it.
First of all Albania and Kosovo have an urgent need to construct and improve their own relationship, to give flesh to the bones of the ‘patriotic symbiosis’: improve their economic ties, strengthen their cultural collaboration and remove a series of hurdles at the borders.
Second, the process of normalization between Albania and Serbia by staying in the right lane, can and will change perceptions of the young generation for each-other’s countries and peoples. This in turn will produce a direct positive effect on the reconciliation between Serbia and Kosovo as well.
In giving themselves a much more restrained yet effective mandate and mission, Tirana stakeholders can be more successful in their pursuit and more accomplished in their presence.
