Vuciq and Rama - from the sparks to friendship

Because of the clashes they had during their first official meeting in Belgrade in 2014, because of Kosovo's status, it has been so far since Vuciq, in 2021, of “mbront” Rama from the criticism of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, due to the regional initiative “Open Balkans”.

Today, Vuciq and Rama are side by side in promoting Open “Balkan”, where members are: Serbia, Albania and Northern Macedonia. This initiative envisions free movement of capital, goods, services and people between these three countries.

“I believe this is a friendly personal relationship that has been built over time, but also an interest, primarily regional”, Stefan Surlic of the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade told Radio Free Europe.

Speaking of relations between the two regional leaders, Surliq added that Serbia and Albania see that without that co-operation, despite the Kosovo problem, there is no future for full membership in the European Union.

The politician from Tirana, Ben Andoni, told Radio Free Europe that both have helped each other to confirm.

“Vukiqi gave Rama the opportunity, and this vice versa -- each other -- to express itself to Kosovo according to their interests, in Belgrade and Tirana, respectively -- to score many points: Rama in Kosovo, while Vuciqi in the nationalist environment, but also in Kosovo Serbs”, Andoni said.

Because of Kosovo, whose independence Belgrade does not recognise, there have been tensions between Vuciqi and Rama in the past years. Albania was among the first countries to accept Kosovo's independence.

Today, both say they disagree about Kosovo, but, however, can talk.

At first meeting, Vuciqi accused Rama of provocation

Aleksandar Vuciq did not hide how nervous Edi Rama was during his visit to Belgrade in November 2014, when at a joint media conference, Rama said Kosovo's independence is reality.

And the sooner Serbia accepts this, the sooner we move forward as the region. Our attitudes change, but this should not prevent us from telling each other the truth”, Rama said.

Aleksandar Vuciq, who was Serbia's prime minister at the time, responded that he did not expect provocation.

I have not expected provocation from Mr. Rama and have not expected to speak for Kosovo and Metohija. I don't know what he has to do with Kosovo and Metohija. Metohia's Kosovo is part of Serbia, according to the Constitution of Serbia, and there has been no connection with Albania, nor will it have”, Vuciq replied.

Rama's visit to Belgrade was the first of an Albanian prime minister after 68 years and was praised as historic.

Stefan Surlic, from the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, praised that Vuciq and Rama have taken a major step forward with this meeting, despite the Kosovo dispute.

The “they, since then, recognised the main interest, which is the regional connection in the absence of a clear perspective of membership in the European Union”, Surlic said.

Serbia received EU membership candidate status in 2012, meanwhile, membership negotiations began in 2014. Albania applied for membership 13 years ago, but has not yet received the date for the start of negotiations.

And twitting

Similar rhetoric between Vuciqi and Rama from the first meeting can be followed in the years to come on the social Twitter network.

A normal Serbia can only be possible if real Serbia understands that Albania is its nightmare, rather than our” project, Rama wrote on Twitter in October 2014.

Cause it was a scare with the “inscription Greater Albania”, which has emerged above the field in the Serbia-Albania football match, which was held in Belgrade, and the reactions that followed it.

Vuciq responded immediately, saying they are absolutely right those who say Greater Albania is Serbia's nightmare.

But this is not just our nightmare, but the nightmare of Europe, the nightmare of all humanity and we will do everything in our power to prevent it”, Vuciq wrote on Twitter.

And when the Court of Arbitrazhi Sports in Lozanne of Switzerland made a decision in favour of Albania, because of the suspension of the match for qualifications for EURO 2016, Rama reported on Twitter with message: “Great. This is European justice”.

According to Vuciqi, Rama's European justice was a “turp” for European law. Your Honored Edi Rama, don't worry, we'll beat you in the field in the middle of Tirana without fear and help. I'll see you soon”, Vucinic wrote on Twitter.

Next time, Vuciq sent a message to Rama via Twitter, because of Kosovo.

“promises Prime Minister Rama that Kosovo and Albania, as he says, will never join in the classic 48x1>, Vuciq wrote on April 7, 2015.

Earlier, Rama, speaking of the Klan Kosova television in Pristina, said the Balkans should be part of the EU, that the unification of Albanians of Albania and Kosovo would become a function of the EU or in response to European blindness. The translation, dubbed incorrect in part of the interview for the future of Albania and Kosovo, prompted intense reactions in Serbia.

Vuciqi, later, was “pa comment on journalists' question of Rama's visit to the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo ʹparty led by Ramush Haradinaj, one of the leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

But imagine if I went somewhere in the region to visit representatives of the most extreme Serbian parties, how they would react to Europe and the world”, Vuciq said in February 2017.

At the time, Haradinaj, deputy of the Kosovo Assembly, was awaiting a court ruling in France regarding Serbia's request for extradition, due to war crimes charges during 1998/99. The French court later rejected Belgrade's request.

 Change of Narration, Key

In May 2015, during his visit to Tirana, Aleksandar Vuciq, as Serbia's prime minister, voiced confidence that relations between Serbia and Albania are very important for the Western Balkans.

It was the first official visit of a Serbian leader to Albania, during which Rama and Vuciq stressed the importance of regional co-operation and negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia.

“Even though we have the mountain-sized context on the Kosovo issue, this dispute does not diminish the importance of dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo”, Rama said, referring to dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia for normalising relations, which is mediated by the EU.

Rama and Vuciq during a regional meeting of Western Balkan countries in Tirana, Albania, 21 December 2019.

Rama and Vuciq during a regional meeting of Western Balkan countries in Tirana, Albania, 21 December 2019.

Vuciq, later, said that “spoke sincerely even when they disagreed”.

In such a tone, he responded, a year later, to the request of the right Democratic Party of Serbia, that Rama of “conveyed” from Serbia, due to the request for recognition of Kosovo.

“Rama is a respected guest of Serbia, and Rama will be respected and honoured even here in Nis, because we believe we should develop better economic and political relations with

Albania”, Vuciq said, on October 13, 2016, in Nis é town south of Serbia where Rama and I attended the Belgrade Security Forum.

He added that on Rama's request for Belgrade to recognise Kosovo, he has responded with dignity and responsibility.

Both still have different views, but best understood, said Rama during his visit to Belgrade in October 2016, at the promotion of his book “Kurban”.

At the time, he referred to their first meeting in 2014.

Rama has written that he remembers Vuciki's facial expression when he mentioned Kosovo, adding that he (Vuciqi) “will die before him”.

Rama most frequently meets with Vuciqi in region

During his nine years of governance, Albania's prime minister, Edi Rama, has dedicated special importance to relations with Serbia.

Belgrade is the capital Rama has visited most frequently, and Aleksandar Vuciq is the regional leader with whom he has met the most.

In the past eight years, Rama and Vuciq have met 17 times, face to face and in the context of regional co-operation, including two official visits Vuciq made to Tirana and three Rama visits to Belgrade.

Rama has argued this approach with Serbia's leadership as a mechanism for preserving peace and increasing co-operation among the countries of the region, according to him, even from the Franco-German model after World War II.

“We, Albanians, cannot build the future without crossing and wiping out the historical boundaries between us and Europe, between Albania and Kosovo and between Albanians and Serbs. Let's not tie our feet to the cords of past”, Rama said during a visit to Belgrade in December 2014.

Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, has acknowledged that improving relations between Albania and Serbia is particularly due to the Albanian prime minister.

I haven't even avoided this, if nothing else... After many decades, in which we have not had relations, it seems that we have established rational and normal relations”, Vuciq said in the interview for Albanian television. ABC News, in May 2018.

Since 2014, governments -- Albania and Serbia -- have signed 64 agreements in the field of free movement of people, police co-operation, recognition of university diplomas, etc.

Open Balkans as the access button

Friendship between Edi Rama and Aleksandar Vuciqi has been strengthened in recent years with their common idea for the “Open Balkans initiative, which aims at free circulation of people, goods, capital and services.

The “Open Balkans initiative”, originally called “Zen”, began in November 2019, in Novi Sad, by Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, and then northern Macedonia Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.

I saw Prime Minister Rama attack that the initiative was for Greater Serbia. I am under attack that the initiative is for Greater Albania”, Vuciq said in December, at the summit in Tirana.

During his visit to Belgrade in November 2021, Rama told Deutsche Welle that he thought they would all come to “Open Balkans”, because “has no other path”.

However, initiators of the Open “Balkan”, so far, have failed to attract other Western Balkan countries, though they have repeatedly said the door is open to all, including Kosovo.

But, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, is the opponent of the Open “Balkan”.

Thus, in August 2021, at an event in Pristina, he estimated that the initiative was more like open to the Balkan influences from the East, especially from Russia and China.

And that's exactly why Vuciq is protecting Rama, saying he's doing good things for his country and his people.

“If Albin Kurti does not understand the good things that bring the regional co-operation initiative and its messages enter space, by closing and not opening Pristina, he is very wrong”, Vucinic told reporters in Skopje, on July 29th of last year, at a meeting of the “Balkan Open” initiative.

The target of the “Open Bankan” initiative is rapid implementation of the single market and the preparation of three countries for the European Union's unique market.

So far, free movement among these three countries with IDs has been enabled, agreement has been reached on co-operation in facilitating import, export and goods movement, as well as memorandums of understanding and co-operation for free access to the labour market.

All three countries have also decided to lift customs controls by January 1st of 2023.

What are the benefits for the states?

Politologist from Belgrade Stefan Surliq said that the “Open Balkans” sees it as a step towards creating a single regional market.

“Here, above all, is the economic interest of Serbia and Albania, in the hope that the economic relationship will mark the normalisation of relations between Belgrade and Pristina. Kosovo now only sees it as the only problem in their reciprocal relations”, Surlic estimated.

For politician from Tirana, Ben Andoni, besides superficial propaganda, the Rama-Vucciq friendship has had very little benefit for the Albanian economy.

He stressed that trade and economic relations between Albania and Serbia remain unchanged, but in the international sense, Rama and Vuciq used their friendship to position themselves as leaders contributing to peace and co-operation in the Balkans and beyond.

“As far as benefits are concerned, it has a small effect, and this relates to the fact that the economic structures of Serbia and Albania are not the same. On the other hand, it should be said that there is still no academic study on the benefits of the parties. But residence permits and capital movements have begun to be recognised and procedures facilitated. The only problem is that Serbia and Albania are not border sites”, Andoni said.

What links Vuchchi and Rama?

From Serbia's presidency, no answer has been reached in Radio Free Europe's question about how the “Balkan Open Initiative has affected” in relations between Serbia and Albania, as well as in personal relations between Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, and Albania's prime minister, Edi Rama.

Even Edi Rama's cabinet did not answer Radio Free Europe's question.

Politologist and journalist from Tirana Ben Andoni said the close relationship between the two leaders, Rama and Vuciq, has been influenced by the similarity of political situations in both countries, but “and their autocratia”.“Edi Rama has almost every power in Albania, even an inactive opposition. Almost the same situation is in Serbia, where Vuciq also has a weak opposition. In short, the great power and the drive to autocratia have both made them look at each other as models”, Andoni praised.

Similar sentiments are shared by Stefan Surliq, politicalologist from Belgrade.

The “in their hands has concentrated great power, even further beyond, lacking rule of law, is great corruption... while, on the other hand, they have presented themselves as great reformers and people who bring success and progress to their societies”, Surlic said.

Edi Rama's Socialist Party won parliamentary elections in Albania in April 2021, providing Rama with the third term as prime minister. A year later, Aleksandar Vucinqi's Serbian Progressive Party won the parliamentary elections in Serbia, and Vuciq won the second presidential mandate.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama speaks of Aleksandar Vucicin as his former “opponent”. That is how he called it in an interview for the Belgrade newspaper Novi Magazin in October 2016, when he said more bridges are needed between Albania and Serbia.

“... to overcome the very painful past that separates us and builds us a great future, hand in hand for our peoples... the two biggest nations in the Balkans, as my friend Aleksandar Vuciq” likes to say, said.

Vuciq also spoke with the same tone in November 2021, following the meeting of the “Open Balkans initiative”, when he and Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabiq organised dinner for Edi Rama, the then deputy prime minister of Northern Macedonia, Nikola Dimitrov, and the then Montenegrin Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic.

The wonderful evening at Salon 1905 with friends from the region, Edi Rama, Zdravko Krivokapiq and Nikola Dimitrov”, wrote Vuciq in the Institute.

During his book promotion in Belgrade in October 2016, Rama said that several months ago, on his birthday, at an EU summit for the Western Balkans, he has asked then Serbian Foreign Affairs Minister Ivica Dacic to sing for him.

Outside of these moments, which have become the content of the landscapes in both countries, Vucic and Rama became the main contributors to the expansion of “Open Balkans” in other Western Balkan countries. In this ambition, they have the support of the European Union and the US.

But there are huge reserves in the region. Authorities in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina are not responding to calls, while Montenegro's new prime minister, Dritan Abazovic, elected in late April, has supported Montenegro's entry into the initiative.