TIRANA, Sept. 14 – German Chancellor Angela Merkel is on an official visit to Albania, where she is meeting leaders from six Western Balkan countries ahead of her departure from the post after 16 years at the helm of the German government.
Chancellor Merkel first held a one-on-one meeting with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, followed by a bilateral meeting between the two state delegations.
She was in Belgrade for a one-day visit before arriving in Tirana, where she repeated Germany’s stance of the need to solve the Kosovo-Serbia conflict as a condition for Serbia’s EU membership.
The main theme of Chancellor Merkel’s visit is to discuss the Western Balkan states’ efforts to join the European Union as well as EU’s own work in this area.
Merkel became the initiator of the Berlin Process seven years ago, in August 2014, which involved the six countries of the Western Balkans in an effort to help book integration efforts. The Berlin Process aims to normalize and revitalize the region’s infrastructure, economy and youth exchanges as well as improve security and reconciliation processes.
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