TIRANA, April 11 – Serbia’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Milan Milanovic, has sent a letter to the President of the UN Security Council, Dina Kawar, expressing Belgrade’s concern on a statement from Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama over “the unification of Albania and Kosovo.”
The letter, which has been made public, says Rama’s comments are inflammatory and hurt regional stability. It cites miss-translated versions of the comments that appeared on many Serb media outlets.
In a joint interview in Montenegro with Kosovo’s deputy premier and Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci, Rama said that Albania and Kosovo would join one way or another, but it would be best if it was done under the European Union umbrella.
The comments were meant as a protest to EU policies that had left Kosovo isolated and without a visa-free regime that the rest of the region enjoys.
And both Albania and Kosovo have set EU integration as a main target. Albania is also a full NATO member since 2009.
Neither country has an official policy to change political borders, but both aim to create the highest type of economic integration possible.
Belgrade sees Kosovo as part of its territory. It lost access after NATO bombing ended an ethnic cleansing campaign by Serb forces in 1999 that killed about 10,000 ethnic Albanians and displaced 90 percent of the population.
Serbia has never formally apologized to the Kosovar people for their suffering.
Rama’s words did draw some concern by EU and U.S. officials, however. EU officials said that such rhetoric does not help the stability in the region. U.S. officials said Albania should pay attention to what the EU said on the matter.
Stratfor, an international security institution, said in an analysis that friction between Serbia and Albania will persist, but Albania’s claims over Kosovo will remain rhetorical, and a more serious escalation is unlikely.
“Tension between Albania and Serbia is not new. The resurrection of irredentist claims has long been a common feature of politics in the Western Balkans,” it noted. “In a region with such a complex geographic and ethnic landscape, where official borders do not match linguistic or religious ones, most countries hold centuries-old grudges and make territorial claims on others.”
