Albanian PM Edi Rama to visit Belgrade in September

BELGRADE - Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama will pay an official visit to Serbia in September, which will be the first time an Albanian high official has come to Belgrade in the past 70 years, the Belgrade-based daily Danas reported.

Quoting Rama's cabinet, Danas says that the invitation for the visit sent by Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has arrived in Tirana and that the only task left to tackle now is set the exact date of the visit.

The daily says that Rama was supposed to visit Belgrade six months ago but the visit was delayed as early parliamentary elections were called in Serbia in March.

Rama will be the first Albanian prime minister to visit Serbia in the past seven decades. The last Albanian prime minister to visit Belgrade was Enver Hoxha who visited Serbia in 1947 as the guest of Josip Broz Tito and the then Yugoslav Federation.

In a recent interview for Danas, Rama said that the most important topic for the talks with the Belgrade government is the analysis of the region as a joint market, adding that the potential problem which may arise during the talks may lie in the diverging opinions concerning the Kosovo issue in Belgrade and Tirana.

“The Albanian government will not advocate any paternalist attitude concerning Kosovo. We see Kosovo as a country equal to all other countries in the region. When we touch on this matter in the talks with Belgrade, we will insist on Kosovo being treated as a separate subject, which it in fact is. In any case, there is no reason for Albania to speak on behalf of Kosovo,” Rama said.

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