Macedonia, Albania angers Belgrade with call for adoption of UN resolution on Kosova

SKOPJE, June 4 – Belgrade condemned the call from the foreign ministers of Macedonia and Albania last week urging the U.N. Security Council to adopt a U.N. proposal granting supervised independence for Kosovo.
Belgrade said that the two countries should not promote such an idea.
“Status for Kosovo is a better solution than the status quo for Kosovo, as we have now,” Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki told reporters after meeting with Albanian counterpart Lulzim Basha in Skopje on Friday.
“We encourage the U.N. Security Council to adopt the resolution, which will close the Kosovo issue positively,” Milososki said. “That will help us focus our energy on Euro-Atlantic integration, rather than on dealing with instability.”
Basha also reiterated Albania’s support for the proposal, drafted by U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari, and creating an internationally supervised independence for the disputed province.
“Albania strongly supports independence for Kosovo, based on Ahtisaari’s plan,” he said, urging its quick adoption.
Kosovo remains a province of Serbia and has been under U.N. and NATO administration since a 78-day NATO-led air war that halted a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in 1999.
Serbia and it ally Russia, a permanent Security Council member with veto power, have rejected the U.N. proposal, insisting Kosovo remain within existing borders.
Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians, who comprise 90 percent of its 2 million population, welcomed the plan, which is also supported by the United States and other Western nations.
Macedonia and Albania, together with Croatia, hope to be invited to join NATO at the alliance’s summit next year in Bucharest, Romania.
The three Balkan nations also will boost reform efforts to meet NATO membership conditions, the two foreign ministers said, and appealed for Washington’s support for their NATO bids.
During the meeting, both countries pledged stronger ties and cooperation in all spheres.
Besides NATO, both countries are making efforts to become integrated into the European Union. Macedonia is further ahead, after it completed the Stabilization and Association Agreement period, which Albania signed only last year.
The two countries also pledged to further continue efforts on building the AMBO oil pipeline and other projects within Corridor 8 involving both countries.