Visit would mark the first time an Albanian gov’t leader has made an official visit to Belgrade since 1946.
TIRANA, Jan. 15 – Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama will visit Belgrade in February, according to several media reports. If the visit materializes, it will be the first time the head of Albania’s government has made an official visit to the Serb capital since 1946.
The two countries have had a lengthy hostile relationship that peaked with the war in Kosovo in 1999, but relations have steadily improved in the recent years.
Rama’s cabinet and foreign ministry have said they plan to make the visit, but the timing was unknown until several Serb media published articles about it this week. Serb Foreign Minister Ivan Mrkic told the local media in Serbia that Rama’s exact date has yet to be set, but most likely in February, as part of his regional tour.
Bilateral ties, cooperation in agriculture, tourism, transportation, education and minority issues will be part of the talks.
Over the past decade, Albania and Serbia have made significant attempts to develop bilateral relations. Politically, dialogue between both states is present, and occasionally official state visits between their respective parties have occurred; while in economic terms, trade and investment have witnessed a slow, but positive trend.
The two countries broke diplomatic relations over the war in Kosovo, in which the ethnic Albanian population broke free of Serb rule. Officially, relations were reestablished and normalized by the exchange of diplomatic notes in January 2001. However, it wasn’t until 2004, when Serbia-Montenegro’s Defense Minister Prvoslav Davinic made an official visit to Albania (the first visit since 1948), that tensions between Tirana and Belgrade ended. Later, Kastriot Islami, the then Albanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, repaid the visit to Belgrade in May 2005, which could be considered a turning point in bilateral relations between Albania and Serbia.
The growing political cooperation was once again halted with the Kosovo declaration of independence in February 2008. Albania was among the first countries to recognize the newly-established state, a move not welcomed by Belgrade. The perception and reality of Albania being one of the main promoters of Kosovo’s independence remains to this day one of the major issues preventing full cooperation between the two countries, Albanian and Serb experts say.
Nonetheless, a positive sign was sent in March 2010, when the Albanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister Ilir Meta visited. An official visit by the Serb foreign minister visit followed.
