Albania and Kosovo signed 14 agreements on different topics during the joint governmental meeting on Friday in Tirana.
Memorandum of Cooperation in Railway Transport, Additional protocol to the Cooperation Agreement between the Ministries of Health of both countries on dealing with COVID-19, Agreement on the establishment of a joint fund in support of the Albanian majority Presevo Valley in Serbia, are some of the issues the two countries agreed to cooperate on.
The meeting was led by both prime ministers, Edi Rama of Albania and his counterpart from Kosovo, Avdullah Hoti.
After the joint meeting with the moto “Together with no borders”, Rama stated that Kosovo will finally have in its disposal the Albanian Port of Durres on the Adriatic Sea.
“In few weeks I will visit the prime minister (Avdullah Hoti) together with a delegation to finally sign the agreement that passes the customs of Durres at the disposal of Kosovo and that de facto turns the Port of Durres into Kosovo’s Port,” he stated.
Both governments agreed to conduct a feasibility study on the railway line which connects Serbia, through Kosovo to Albania’s Port of Durres. This was one of the points in the document signed at the White House in September.
Asked to comment on the criticism of the former prime minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti on the railway agreement, Rama stated that his calculations are like “Yugoslav self-administration”.
“How can it [the country] which has the Port and who carries out all that trade volume of imports and exports benefit less than one of the actors who will use the port, Albin [Kurti] can surely find this out…,” stated Rama.
The leader of the Kosovo opposition movement Vetevendosje, Albin Kurti stated that the Albanians from both countries will only be consumers of Serbia’s goods. He made these comments in the end of September during the meeting of the General Council of Vetevendosje.
Meanwhile Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti reconfirmed that Kosovo will be part of the mini- Schengen initiative.
“We will make sure we join in this initiative as an equal party,” Hoti said.
While criticizing the European Union for the non-liberalization of visas for Kosovo, PM Edi Rama added that the Balkan Schengen is a discharge valve that brings more employment and above all recognition of Kosovo by Serbia.
