TIRANA, March 5 – Albania and Serbia are ready to have more comprehensive relations despite their disagreements over Kosovo, according to officials from both countries who spoke in several meetings held this week.
Albanian Ambassador to Serbia Ilir Bocka held Monday a meeting with Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic to discuss on bilateral ties. Serbia is willing, despite the existing differences, to develop comprehensive relations with Albania as a neighboring country, to the benefit of both sides, said Dacic, according to the Serbian media.
The meeting was followed later in the week by an official visit by Serbian Parliament Speaker Maja Gojkovic who met with all of Albania’s top leaders, including her counterpart, Ilir Meta, President Bujar Nishani and Prime Minister Edi Rama.
It was the first visit of its kind to Albania by a Serbian parliamentary leader.
The meetings in Tirana focused on economic cooperation and minority rights.
“The countries of the region can build a better future for their peoples only through mutual understanding, cooperation and good trust,” President Nishani told the visiting Serbian parliamentarian.
In a statement from his office, President Nishani said the meeting paid a particular attention also to the economic, political and social status of the Albanians in the Presevo Valley and everywhere in Serbia, by stressing that Albania expects them to be treated according to all international standards.
In a meeting with Prime Minister Rama Gojkovic said that the primary interest of improving relations between the two countries is to secure better life for their citizens, adding that cooperation sends the message to the region and the European Union that Serbia and Albania guarantee the stability of the Western Balkans. Gojkovic stressed that only the integration of the Western Balkans can make the EU truly complete.
In the earlier Belgrade meeting, Dacic and Bocka discussed how to ensure better cooperation between the two countries in mutual interest, the Serbian ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement.
The Serbian foreign minister said that it would be useful for a relaxation of relations that the two countries sign an agreement on the protection of minorities in the foreseeable future, adding that Serbia is interested in setting the legal groundwork for cooperation agreements in all fields.
Dacic and Bocka agreed that the big potential for trade is still mostly untapped. They said that the agreed meeting of the intergovernmental committee on trade and economic cooperation and the holding of a business forum in April should help overcome the obstacles in trade.
Minister Dacic said that Serbia is interested in cooperation on several regional projects, especially bilateral projects in the fields of infrastructure, energy, tourism and others.
The officials considered the bilateral cooperation at multilateral level, and Serbia’s OSCE chairmanship, reads the release.
That is a good sign of reconciliation, especially after the disagreements last year. First it was with the European championship qualifier held in Belgrade which was suspended and then canceled after football players and fans attacked the Albanian players when an allegedly national Albanian flag flew over the pitch.
Then it was heightened to threatening levels during the visit of Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama in Belgrade, which he asked publicly to forget the past and accept the present and the future, that is acknowledge that Kosovo is no more part of Serbia and it should be recognized to give a new impetus to the development in the region.
