Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama will visit Kosovo on Monday, where he will meet with country’s political leaders.
Rama, accompanied by several members of his cabinet, will spend the morning talking to Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and his government’s members.
Then, Rama will meet with the leaders of the opposition, Memli Krasniqi of PDK, Lumir Abdixhiku of LDK, and Ramush Haradinaj of AAK, visiting their respective party headquarters.
The visit comes amidst continuous frictions and public spats between Rama and Kurti, mainly due to Kurti’s refusal to join the Open Balkans initiative, launched by Albanian, Serbian and North Macedonian leaders. The initiative aims to establish a common economic area in the Western Balkans. Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina have also refused to join this initiative.
Kurti maintains that Open Balkans will establish Serbian economic hegemony in the Balkans and will undermine the region’s EU integration, and the Berlin Process led by the German Chancellor.
The visit will also take place while tensions are high in the north of Kosovo, due to Kosovo’s government decision to require cars with Serbian license plate numbers to use temporary Kosovo plates when entering the country. Kosovo’s decision reciprocates a policy agreed by the two countries and enforced by Serbia since 2019.
