Vuciq: Citizens to Leave Belgrade to Tirana, No One to Stop

Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq, at “Economic Forum for Regional Co-operation” currently under way in Skopje, has called the initiative between his state, Albania and North Macedonia as historic for free trade.

He has said that soon citizens of these three states will be able to move without anyone stopping them from Belgrade to Tirana and vice versa, not mentioning Kosovo at all here.

If we can overcome all of our administration's weaknesses and if we can do this, on January 1, 2023 we will no longer have borders in our countries. However, border crossings will exist, but will not exist for our citizens. Simply, from Belgrade you will leave until Tirana, and no one will stop and otherwise. Nobody's going to ask anything, and I'm going to stop you, and with that, we also increase the security of our citizens. When we enter this system, we will know who are involved in organized crime and illegal activities, and all three countries will react together against these” processes.

When we launched this initiative, the three of us seemed to be something that is for our good, for the future, and will change things in the Balkans. For all the things that we could easily find inconsistencies in each other and we could easily find reasons for mutual disputes”.

Serbia and Albania have never been in such close relations and we all had different problems. However, we decided how from the past we should turn to the future and think about what we have and leave something to those behind us, our children. In the past two years, we have developed a genuine belief between us in the sense of developing relations in the region closer to the EU and the world. We are neither stupid nor naive to think that someone will work in favor of our countries”.

Vuciq said that very easily they agreed with the Albanian and Macedonian prime minister to place signatures in specific agreements.

This trust is important and this happened. We have independent and sovereign countries, so for us, borders exist. Since there's no stop in places, just stop at border”.

The Serbian president before the attendees called for the past among the countries to be left behind and looked towards the future, noting that there are still huge differences among them.

Likewise, Vuciq said those who oppose the initiative of the three countries think of their party interests rather than the future of ordinary citizens.

We're going to have options so they're going to explore conspiracy theories and think only of future elections and not of the long-term future”.

Vuciq said that in Serbia there is a lack of foreign investment even due to lack of labour force, therefore says that through this initiative it aims to use the workforce jointly in factories that can be opened in Vranje, Kukes or Kumanovo.