The leaders of Serbia and Albania have used a historic meeting to urge their countries to work together to join the European Union and boost stability in a Balkan region rattled by a political crisis in Macedonia.
Ties between Belgrade and Tirana have long been strained over the latter’s support for Kosovo. More than 100 countries recognise the mostly ethnic-Albanian state that as independent, but Serbia still considers it to be part of its territory.
Under EU pressure, however, Serbia now holds talks with Kosovo on practical issues, and is working with Albania to show Brussels that both nations are ready to put differences aside over Kosovo and its 1998-1999 conflict with Belgrade’s forces.
"Relations between Serbia and Albania will be the backbone of relations in this part of Europe," Serb prime minister Aleksandar Vucic said yesterday during the first official visit by a leader from Belgrade to Albania.
“If we are smart and responsible enough,” he added, “and understand that wars and bloodshed will not solve our problems, but talks, dialogue and honest relations, then . . . both Serbia and Albania will have a much better future.”
Albania’s premier, Edi Rama, told his guest that their countries should do for the Balkans what France and Germany did for Europe after 1945.
“The courage that [they] had to overcome rivers of blood after the second World War should inspire us, to turn this peaceful time into a history of building up the foundations of sustainable co-existence,” Mr Rama said.
Both men admitted that they hold irreconcilable views on Kosovo’s independence, but agreed to boost trade and help each other move closer to EU membership.
The importance of relations between Albania and its mostly Slav neighbours was highlighted this month, when 18 people were killed in a clash in Macedonia between police and gunmen led by ethnic Albanians from Kosovo.
The bloodshed threatened to reopen communal divisions in Macedonia, which witnessed a brief insurgency in 2001 by armed groups demanding more rights for the country’s one-quarter ethnic- Albanian minority.
Some politicians and media in Macedonia and Serbia said the latest clash revealed the desire of armed elements in the Balkans to push for the creation of a “Greater Albania”. This would unite Albania with Kosovo and largely ethnic-Albanian areas in Macedonia and other nearby states.
“There is no project of a ‘Greater Albania’, but a project to unite our countries . . . within the EU,” Mr Rama insisted.
The violence in Macedonia came amid a deep political crisis, which has seen tens of thousands of people rally for and against prime minister Nikola Gruevski.