PM’s Serbia visit still in jeopardy, as last minute plans take place

TIRANA, Nov. 5 – Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama is set to go to Belgrade next Monday in the first visit of its kind in almost seven decades, with last minute plans on the visit still taking place less than a week before it is scheduled to take place.
But the planned visit is still in jeopardy following continuing diplomatic debate over the fallout of the incident in October, when the Albanian players were physically attacked at the Belgrade stadium in the Euro 2016 qualifier with Serbia.
The visit has also planned a trip to southern Serbia’s Preshevo Valley, in an area mainly inhabited by the ethnic Albanian minority. Belgrade is unhappy with that portion of the visit, according to media reports. But the Albanian prime minister’s office denied earlier media reports that that portion had been cancelled.
Rama’s visit was originally planned for Oct. 22, and was later postponed to Oct. 14 soccer brawl to Nov. 10.
“Regardless of the long shadow of the negative events in the football match between the two countries, Rama’s visit is important for the European future of the Balkans,” said Albert Rakipi of the Albanian Institute for International Studies. “Edi Rama has shown a modern approach to foreign policy in the Balkans, and I think this became clear in the way he managed the absurd situation created after the football match, which brought back memories of a cold war.”
But relations are still not smooth. Last weekend, a gathering was planned in Belgrade of the leaders of the western Balkan countries, bidding to join the European Union — Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania — under the auspices of the Trilateral Commission, a Western reflection group.
Rama declined his invitation. Kosovo’s president, Atifete Jahjaga, whose visit would have marked the first to Serbia by a head of state of an independent Kosovo, also bowed out, citing a political crisis at home.
Kosovo, which is mainly ethnic Albanian, broke away from Serbia in war in 1999 and declared independence in 2008. Belgrade has not officially recognized Kosovo’s independence, which came almost a decade after an 11-week NATO air war in 1999 that drove out Serbian forces which had waged a bloody counter-insurgency, driving hundreds of thousands of people into neighboring Macedonia and Albania.
Currently, Albania and Serbia face no major issue that can stop further development of relations, with the big exception of the fact that Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as an independent state, said Rakipi
“But I think that on that point Albania and Serbia have have agreed to disagree,” he added.
The scheduled Monday visit, the first visit to Serbia by an Albanian leader in 68 years, is considered as the opening of a new chapter in relations marred by tension over Kosovo.
In Albania’s Oct. 14 first match in Belgrade since 1967, the visiting national anthem was loudly jeered by Serbian fans and derogatory chants were heard throughout. Serbian supporters also threw flares and other objects at Albanian players. During the game, a banner showing a so-called map of “greater Albania” including parts of Greece, Macedonia and Serbia was flown in by a drone. A Serbia player pulled the banner down, while Albanian players tried to protect it. A brawl ensued. Fans hurled broken seats and other objects, and attacked Albanian players, who fled to the dressing room and refused to return.
Officials have said Albania hopes next week’s meeting with Serbia can draw a line under an on-pitch brawl between their national soccer teams and put efforts to heal fragile Balkan relations back on the right track.
They added that Albania and Serbia had serious issues, but Albanian officials hope the visit would continue some of the work on improving Balkan relations done in Berlin earlier this year.