Albania's top diplomat urges BiH to reevaluate Kosovo approach

Albania supports Bosnia and Herzegovina's European perspective and aims to further strengthen reports through re-opened embassies in both capitals.

Foreign Minister Igli Hasani hosted Bosnia and Herzegovina counterpart Elmedin Konakovic on Monday to discuss issues from tourism and regional security closely to Kosovo and the European Union.

“With Minister Konakovic we concluded that the potential of development and bilateral relations are still untapped properly. We set several milestones of further work and discussed directions to drop opportunities for deepening and expanding bilateral co-operation. Our will is to walk as far ahead of”, he said,

According to him, reopening respective embassies in our two capitals is aimed at concrete realising that will.

The European integration process was another important chapter of conversations. Albania praises and supports Bosnia and Herzegovina's efforts in this direction, which have also recently produced concrete results, such as obtaining candidate status and recommending the European Commission for the opening of negotiations. This perspective helps us to understand each other better and to draw us closer, even in the context of regional economic integration through trade between us and the EU. Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina share a similar approach to strengthening regional co-operation, and in this context I expressed to our Bosniak friend the requirement for a re-evaluation of the position regarding Kosovo's membership in regional initiatives or even initiatives involving interhuman exchanges between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, as two neighbouring countries, but also as geopolitical realities of the new century in the function of peace and stability in our common space. Kosovo needs to be examined by a contemporary, realistic and pragmatic point. We also touched on security issues in the region and beyond. I had the chance to repeat my colleague and Bosnian friend's full support for Bosnia and Herzegovina's territorial integrity and sovereignty,”, the minister Hasani said at the joint press conference.

While Konakovic praised diplomatic co-operation with Albania and “opportunities to jointly develop tourism” in both countries. A thank you also for the Albanian government's initiative to co-sponsored the UN resolution to condemn genocide in Srebrenica. “will propose Tirana is the next destination for tourism,” said Minister Konakoviq. /rtsh