Officials set outline for Rama’s Serbia visit

Preshevo Valley, Kosovo recognition part of upcoming talks in Belgrade during official visit by Albania’s prime minister.
TIRANA, Oct. 3 – Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama will visit Belgrade later this month in the first visit to Serbia by an Albanian premier in 68 years.
Albanian officials said last week Friday that the situation of the ethnic Albanian minority in the southern Serbian region of Preshevo Valley and the recognition of Kosovo’s independence would be part of the talks in during the Oct. 22 visit.
Belgrade has not recognized the 2008 independence of Kosovo, formerly a province of Serbia but with an ethnic Albanian majority population.
The last time an Albanian head of state visited Belgrade was in 1946, when late communist dictator Enver Hoxha met with Yugoslavia’s then-leader, Josip Broz Tito, after World War II. The former allies’ relations soured in 1949.
Now both countries aim to join the European Union.