TIRANA, May 3 – Local media reported on Friday Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will be visiting Albania on May 8 to conduct a meeting with the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, in context of the two-day ‘Brdo-Brijuni’ summit which will be held in Tirana.
According to numerous sources, the meeting between Vucic and Mogherini will be held behind closed doors and will discuss the Serbia-Kosovo dispute and the negotiation process which the EU has been mediating.
On May 8, Vucic is expected to visit Rome and meet with Vice Prime Minister Matteo Salvini regarding the same dispute, according to media sources.
The news regarding this visit was also confirmed by the President’s Office, which notified that in addition to Vucic, the President of Bosnia’s Republic of Srpska Milorad Dodik.
The summit will also gather Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, as well as the heads of state of Northern Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia and Poland, as well as Mogherini.
The announcement highlighted the summit’s invitations were sent in cooperation with the Slovenian and Croatian presidents, whose states launched the initiative back in 2010.
“At the invitation of the President of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and the President of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, the Tirana Summit will be attended by three members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Dodik, Š efik DŠ¾aferović and Š½eljko KomŠ¡ić, President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, President of Montenegro, Milo Djukanovic, Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov, and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic,” the announcement read.
Meanwhile, the Kosovo political party Vetevendosje, mainly supporting an Albanian nationalist agenda and which was registered in Tirana also in the beginning of May, gave its first public statement on Sunday, regarding Vucic visit and its opposal to it.
In its statement, Vetevendosje said that the Serbian and Republic of Srpska presidents have held anti-Albanian stands as regional leaders and even warned of protests.
“If Vucic was invited and will be visiting Albania, with or without the brother of his extremist policies, Dodic, then civil reaction will be inevitable,” Vetevendosje wrote.
On a similar note spoke former Foreign Minister Ditmir Bushati, who said that Albania should keep its ground regarding the border exchange issue between Albania and Serbia.
However, after the Berlin summit which took place last week and was headed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, it was highlighted that the idea of territorial exchange between Serbia and Kosovo will no longer be part of the EU-mediated talks between the two countries.
Vucic first visited Tirana in May 2015, making him the first Serbian president to ever visit the country, under the leadership of Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama, where he conducted meetings with all Albanian political representatives and took part in the Tirana Talks 2015 forum.
The Brdo-Brijuni summit, on the other hand, has aimed to serve as a high-level political forum to incite dialogue, cooperation, strengthening of safety and stability and support the euro-atlantic aspirations of the region’s countries.
