TIRANA, September 1 – The initiative of the “Open Balkans” is much more than economy, trade and politics, it is a project of peace and peaceful coexistence of the Western Balkans, said Prime Minister Edi Rama in Belgrade on Thursday.
Rama participated in the opening ceremony of the first edition of the Wine Fair in Belgrade, organized as part of this initiative where producers come together to promote the wines of the region, alongside world-renowned producers, for the first time.
Rama said that “Open Balkan Wine Vision” will take place every year from one capital to another, turning step by step into an important economic and tourist instrument.
He said he was going to speak in his weird language of Albanian because, as he said, he did know their weird language (Serbian). Rama stressed regional people had lost much time in the effort to show each other who was the first and the most ancient people in the region.
“All our countries are here to stay for many, many years and centuries after us,” Rama said, adding that the question is how to stay here in this place, being all together in the same neighborhood of Europe.
The Prime Minister expressed the belief that even here at this high-level European fair, it is clear that it is better together like this, bringing people closer, getting closer to people, seeing how many things people have in common, than the way they have been before without knowing about each other at all and with many conflicts and wars in between.
The formal deliberation of the conference will be held on Friday with the participation of the leaders of Albania, Serbia and North Macedonia as well as Montenegro in the status of observer. There are reports that senior officials from Turkey and Hungary will attend. Some agreements are foreseen to be signed during the event.
The organization of the two-day deliberations of the annual conference of the initiative started on the same day when Kosovo and Serbia started to apply their accord on the mutual recognition of the respective IDs. But Belgrade could not fail to provoke as it organized military exercises along the border with Kosovo.
A diplomat said in condition of anonymity that this is the true face of Serbia which as pledges for peace and cooperation demonstrates its military power. “It is hard which part to trust,” he said.
/Argumentum.al
