TIRANA, July 7 – “We want a peace that works for people and we want people to have more chances, more opportunities, more work, more income and not more tales and stories of heroism,” declared the Prime Minister of Albania’s Edi Rama in Podgorica, where he met with the acting Prime Minister of Montenegro, Dritan Abazović.
“Heroics belong to the past. We do not need new heroes in our region. We need new models, which inspire how to be more innovative, more creative, more efficient, and how to make our economies stronger,” said Rama.
The Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, on Friday continued his tour in the capitals of the Western Balkan states, which, according to him, aims to inform the states of the region about the preparations that Albania is making to host the Berlin Process summit.
Rama stressed that he informed Abazović about the preparations for the summit of the Berlin process, which will be held on October 16 in Tirana, and also talked with him about the NATO summit, which will be held in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 11 and 12.
“For us, it is very important that at this NATO summit we have a common position regarding the region and concerns in it, being aware that thanks to the Berlin Process and thanks to all the other initiatives we have undertaken, we are in another phase of our history,” said Rama.
Prime Minister Abazović said that the common goal of Podgorica and Tirana is to reduce tensions in the entire region of the Western Balkans.
“The goal is to invest together in improving the situation as a whole in the region. The position of Montenegro is very clear, we are only interested in higher cooperation and we want this to be a path that our neighbors will also take,” he said during the press conference with Prime Minister Rama.
Abazovic added that the Western Balkans should “focus on the future, not the past”. He added that all open issues in the region should be closed as soon as possible, so that the Western Balkan states can focus on the common path to membership in the European Union.
Friday’s visit to Podgorica followed the visit to Sarajevo where in the joint press conference with the President of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Borjana Krišto, PM Rama said that it is no secret that Albania also protects the interests of Albanians in Kosovo and elsewhere others.
He asked to enable movement with identity cards in Bosnia-Herzegovina for citizens of Kosovo
“I told the Prime Minister that we are very interested in the agreements of the Berlin Process and in the first place the agreement on free movement, with an identity card for the Albanian citizens of the Republic of Kosovo,” he said.
“I want to believe that just as Serbia itself has signed those agreements, Bosnia-Herzegovina will do the same,” said Rama.
On Thursday, Rama visited Skopje and Pristina. His tour ends with a visit to Serbia, the agenda of which includes a meeting with President Aleksandar Vučić as well as a joint press conference. /argumentum.al
