Tirana

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has stated ahead of his visit to Tirana that "Serbia wants good relations with Albania."

This would contribute to the overall stability in the Western Balkans, he told the Belgrade-based tabloid Kurir.

Serbia's Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic, will visit Tirana on Wednesday - the first visit at this high level and a historic event in the context of the traditionally difficult relationship between Serbians and Albanians.

Aleksandar Vucic will be visiting Tirana on Wednesday and Thursday while his talks with Albanian PM Edi Rama will be under special scrutiny of the world public.

"We want to deepen collaboration with Serbia and advance together on the path of peace, cooperation and integration in the EU," says Albanian PM Edi Rama.

He spoke for AFP ahead of Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic's visit to Tirana this week, the first ever of a Serbian prime minister.

The latest terrorist attacks in the region "confirm fears that creators of the so-called Greater Albania are not resting," Tomislav Nikolic has said.

Albanian officials have made it clear that Albania is not planning to act on demands by Turkey's President for the country to close down the Gulen movement.

President Erdogan made his request in Tirana last week when he called the Gulen movement a terrorist organization.

Pursuing his well-known feud with the Gulen movement, Turkish President has used a visit to Albania to urge the mainly Muslim country to expel the movement as a terrorist organisation.

Turkish President Erdogan told a joint press conference with Albanian President Bujar Nishani in Tirana that dialogue was the only way to restore calm in Macedonia.

The Albanian Foreign Ministry on Friday handed a warning regarding Greece?s plans to search for hydrocarbon reserves in the Ionian Sea to the country?s ambassador in Tirana, Leonidas Rokanas.

The Albanian government?s note verbale claims that the area covered by the research includes parts of the neighboring country?s continental shelf. Athens denies this is the case.

Parties in Albania condemned a man who threw a chair amid a crowd attending a Democratic Party rally in Kolonja, in southeast Albania on Wednesday, injuring a 63-year-old.

The chairman of the Democratic Party and current Mayor of Tirana, Lulzim Basha, was also at the rally where the local candidate for mayor was being presented.