Albania supports Bosnia-Herzegovina’s European perspective and intends to further strengthen relations through reopened embassies in both capitals.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Igli Hasani, received on Monday the counterpart of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Elmedin Konakovic, to closely discuss issues from tourism and regional security to Kosovo and the European Union.
“With Minister Konakovic, we found that the development potential and bilateral relations are still underutilized properly. We set some milestones for further work and discussed the directions for laying out opportunities for deepening and expanding bilateral cooperation. Our will is to move forward as much as possible”, he said.
According to him, the re-opening of the respective embassies in our two capitals aims to concretely realize this will.
“The European integration process was another important chapter of the talks. Albania appreciates and supports the efforts of Bosnia-Herzegovina in this direction, which have recently given concrete results, such as obtaining the status of a candidate country and the recommendation of the European Commission for the opening of negotiations. This perspective helps us understand each other better and bring us closer, also in the context of regional economic integration through trade between us and the EU. Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina share the same approach in terms of strengthening regional cooperation, and in this context I expressed to our Bosnian friend the request for a reassessment of the position regarding Kosovo’s membership in regional initiatives or even initiatives related to interpersonal exchanges. between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, as two neighboring countries, but also as geopolitical realities of the new century in function of peace and stability in our common space. Kosovo needs to be looked at from a contemporary, realistic and pragmatic point of view. We also touched on security issues in the region and beyond. I had the opportunity to repeat to my Bosnian colleague and friend my full support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Bosnia-Herzegovina,” said Minister Hasani at the joint press conference.
Whereas Konakovic appreciated the diplomatic cooperation with Albania and the opportunities “to jointly develop tourism” in both countries. A thank you also for the initiative of the Albanian government to co-sponsor the UN resolution to condemn the genocide in Srebrenica. “I will propose that Tirana be the next destination for tourism,” said Minister Konakovic./rtsh
