Reka says Serbia will recognise Kosovo within 2-3 years

So said the first Albanian candidate for president of northern Macedonia, Blerim Reka, who has made a significant contribution to Kosovo over the years.

Reka for Kosovo Press says official Belgrade should unblock the path of the Republic of Kosovo into UN membership, where the two countries, then equal to each other, could link a historic agreement that would lead to recognition between the two states.

Reka says the Kosovo government would have had to listen to the advice of its friend, America, to suspend the 100 per cent tax on Serbia's goods.

I spend a century of Belgrade-Pristina hostility. I consider that Serbia will have to get out of that cover of the 1990s Milosevic and overcome the colonialist mentality towards Kosovo, accept the real fact and not undermine Kosovo's membership in the UN. It may also postpone a time of non-recognition of the Republic of Kosovo, but it will be forced for 2-3 years, not because of Kosovo, but will be forced to recognise Kosovo due to negotiations where the 35th chapter of the EU, which calls for an ultimatum from Belgrade, normalising relations with Kosovo, will open. Without normalising relations with Kosovo, Serbia will not be able to reach the goal that has designed EU integration”, he has said.

He has addressed criticism of the obstacles Serbia is making to Kosovo in other ways as well, while he has said the Albanian-Serbian problem is not solved by changing borders.

According to him, trade with territories would not be a good option, since the historic agreement between the two countries must be reached and then discussed.

“I don't believe that the issue of Serbian-Kosovon relations with changing borders could be resolved so easily, because on both sides we have the Constitution, which is the highest judicial act, which is guaranteed the invisibility of borders, respectively, the preservation of state sovereignty and territorial integrity. I don't know how this idea could be realized, which, as it were, can only be done with 2/3 of the individuals in the respective countries, and I don't know if this could go to the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo”, he said.

For the 100 per cent tax, Reka says it was initially the decision of a sovereign state, a government that has the right to apply tax and customs tariffs to reciprocity based on international relations.

The effect achieved with the tax, according to him, could be maximum with advancements in the negotiator process.

“This (tax) achieved its influence and showed not only Serbia, but also the international community that there is a state which, against co-operation with the international factor, will act as a sovereign state whenever the neighbouring state violates its sovereignty, but at the moment when the US asked the Government of Kosovo, not to withdraw the tax, but to suspend the tax, it thinks it gave little chance to empower the Kosovo Republic of Kosovo's negotiating position in Belgrade's report, because when you say you suspend the tax, you get priority at the negotiating table and then: if you want to, you don't, you ask for this from Belgrade, you ask for this, you ask for this. I think it would have to use this friendly American advice to empower it, not only in relation to Serbia, but to give Kosovo a more comprehensive international image”, he said.

Otherwise, speaking of the role of Albanians, Reka has said that Albanian people are the most creditable Western factor in the Balkans