Member of the Leadership of the Movement for Self-Determination (LVV), Arber Zaimi told Euronews Albania that Edi Rama should’ve principally spoken with Kosovo regarding regional initiatives beforehand, but nothing of that nature has actually happened.
Zaimi brought up the example of PM Rama meeting Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic, three times since the beginning of the year compared to zero meetings with Kosovo’s PM, Albin Kurti.
“If Rama thinks this is in the interest of the region and Kosovo, then why doesn’t he come here to discuss it with the leaders of Kosovo and Kosovo’s PM? Three meetings in a year with Mr. Vucic, meanwhile not a single inter-governmental meeting or Rama-Kurti meeting,” said the member of VV’s leadership.
According to Zaimi, the initiative that is now known as ‘Open Balkans’ is in the economic interest of Serbia. Cooperation, he said comes at a time, when Belgrade has other geostrategic interests because it is working closely with Russia and China, and against NATO.
Zaimi continued by saying that his sees this initiative as an “adventure” and “a kind of intimidation directed at the EU in order to have them speed up their European integration process”.
In conclusion, Zaimi added that “we need to put pressure on Serbia rather than open-handedly accepting all of its initiatives. Albania loses 120 million euros a year from trade, yet wins 150 million euros a year from Kosovo. Rama doesn’t have the luxury to mess up his relations with Kosovo and amend them with Serbia,” argued Zaimi.
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