Ilir Meta stabbed Kosovo in the back by attending Sarajevo Summit

Unlike other times, the summit for the Co-operation Process in Southeast Europe (SEECP), which was held in Sarajevo this time, did not enjoy Kosovo's participation in the event.

Although this was a traditional meeting of member states in which Kosovo participated as an equal state, this time the country's institutions and the government of Albania refused participation. But it was Albania's president, Ilir Meta, who took a completely different stance, agreeing to participate in this summit.

Faced with this situation, Meta has been criticised for the decision to go to Sarajevo.

Recognition of currentity and political analyst say this approach of the Albanian president represents the spread of political war in Albania. While there are those who say Albanian President Ilir Meta, with his participation in this summit, made it clear that Kosovo is a sovereign and independent state.

Artan Murati, from the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI), says the biggest problem is the failure to implement the regional representation agreement, which the Republic of Kosovo has reached with Serbia along the dialogue in Brussels.

This shows how little there is internal dialogue in Albania and how few are co-ordinated are these institutions. This miscoordination comes and is in the wake of many problems the prime minister is having with the president in Albania. We have seen it on the election issue and on the other hand, and this is simply an indication of this domestic political struggle. On the other hand, in relation to the Republic of Kosovo, normally, this has been a message perhaps the Republic of Kosovo has not expected on the part of institutions in the Republic of Albania, despite the fact that President Meta already called and was very vocal on the Kosovo issue”, he says.

Despite the fact that the Albanian president in Sarajevo has said it cannot be thought of effective regional co-operation, if some of the neighbours aim to make Kosovo unable to participate in such events, Murati expresses pessimistic about the seriousness with which these calls can be taken.

“I don't know how seriously these calls can be taken if it is the same president who cannot convince his prime minister on issues of other nature, how seriously this call can be taken by other state leaders, when it is known that the issue of recognition of the Republic of Kosovo is a political and ethnic character, and I don't know how seriously this call”, he says.

Even for politician Shkodran Ramadani, the participation of Albanian President Ilir Meta at the Summit for the Co-operation Process in Southeast Europe (SEECP) presents reflections of internal problems which are now characterising Albanian politics.

He calls the participation of Albania's president at the Sarajevo summit bad news, while stressing that all of this is a kind of revancy towards Albania's Foreign Affairs Minister Gent Cakaj and against Albania's official position of prime minister, Edi Rama.

According to him, Meta's participation in this summit constitutes a back knife for Kosovo, as it serves against the train that Albanian foreign policy has followed in support of Kosovo, especially after Gent Cakaj comes to the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ilir Meta's “vision goes against this trend and this moment, which has been created in recent months, and that makes it much more serious that this president agrees to go and participate in a summit in which Kosovo has only been invited privately and not as an equal member. And such an invitation goes against the goals of this summit, which claims to bring peace and stability to the region. So, President Meta has gone to a summit, for which stability means oppression, marginalisation and exclusion of Kosovo, as an equal member. This is very bad news, because Kosovo expects greater support from Albania, as Foreign Affairs Minister Gent Cakaj” has given it, he says.

And political analyst Ramush Tahiri says it was Albanian President Ilir Meta, who, with his participation in this summit, made it clear that Kosovo is a sovereign and independent state, also delivering the message that this reality should be recognised by all. Although it says Kosovo rightly refused participation.

Albania's “President Ilir Meta contributed to his participation in this Sam by expressing the clear public stance that Kosovo is a sovereign and independent state that this is a reality that must be accepted by all”, he says.

Tahiri recalls both the beginning of the container for Kosovo, which made the Kosovo side refuse to participate in this meeting.

“This time because this meeting was held in Sarajevo and because the BiH Presidency was headed by Milorad Dodik's invitation to Kosovo, and especially the Bosnian leader's cynical comment was extremely humiliating and Kosovo rightly refused participation. The Republic of Kosovo in the dialogue in Brussels had agreed that in international meetings, it will be represented by introst or astrostous, for which the head of the Kosovo delegation, Edita Tahiri has said that it will melt as a snow flake. Now Hashim Thaci as president refuses to go to the Sarajevo Summit with this star to the country's appointment, even though when that agreement was made was prime minister and had been hired, and had not received an initiative to oppose this agreement that as a solution was anti-binding and Kosovo did not treat as a state, but as the undesigned entity”, Tahiri says.

Otherwise, at this Tuesday's summit in Sarajevo, Kosovo authorities refused to participate in the Summit for the Co-operation Process in Southeast Europe (SEECP), because they named the invitation of Bosnia and Herzegovina's current chairman, Milorad Dodik, who was the host of the meeting.

While after solidising Albania's Albanian government and MPJ with the Kosovo side, President Ilir Meta is Albania's only authority to have responded positively to the invitation.