The Diplomat
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, staged yesterday in Albania, the last stage of his tour of the Western Balkans, Spain’s opposition to the unilateral independence of Kosovo, after his Albanian counterpart defended the territorial sovereignty of this Albanian-majority territory, which “emanates from its independence”.
Albania was the fifth leg of Sánchez’s tour of the Western Balkans, which began on Friday in Serbia and continued on Saturday in Bosnia and Herzegovina and on Sunday in Montenegro and North Macedonia. Albania has had EU candidate status for eight years and accession negotiations began last July 19, as in the case of North Macedonia.
Pedro Sánchez held a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, and was the first international leader to meet with the country’s newly elected president, Bejram Begaj. During their meeting, Rama and Sánchez addressed the consequences of the war in Ukraine and, in this regard, the President of the Government congratulated the Albanian people for joining the EU sanctions on the Russian economy.
Both leaders also discussed the recent start of negotiations for Albania’s accession to the Union. “It has been a long and long-desired road,” Sánchez said during his appearance before the media alongside the Albanian prime minister. “I recognize Albania’s patience and solidarity and I reiterate that, as to date, Albania will continue to enjoy Spain’s support in its reform process and with a view to making accession to the Union a reality in the near future,” he added.
The two leaders also discussed bilateral relations and attended the signing of an International Administrative Agreement, coordinated by the Ministries of the Interior of both countries, creating a joint investigation team to fight crime, one of the commitments that are part of the accession process. Specifically, the objective of the agreement is to combat criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking, money laundering and terrorism and will involve direct communication between the units involved to share information and assist in operational activities.
The leaders also discussed economic and commercial relations, which currently represent a total value of close to 155 million euros. The presence of Spanish companies in Albania is focused, above all, on sectors such as tourism, textiles and energy, but there is the capacity to deepen in these areas and capacity for expansion to sectors such as circular economy, innovation, machine tools, electric vehicles or construction. “Now is the time to also intensify our relationship in other areas, such as economic and commercial, where many Spanish companies are very interested in contributing to the country’s growth,” said Sánchez.
Kosovo
During the press conference, Sánchez again reiterated Spain’s position against Kosovo‘s independence, after Rama referred to the border incidents that have taken place between Serbia and Kosovo a few hours before the beginning of Pristina’s implementation of the ban on Serbian documents and license plates in the territory, a measure opposed by Belgrade (and which has finally been postponed by a month).
In this regard, the Albanian Prime Minister stated that Kosovo “has the right to implement the agreements that have been reached by exercising its territorial sovereignty, which emanates from its independence”. For his part, Sanchez declared that “good friends can also have their differences”, but “we consider that the Unilateral Declaration of Independence of Kosovo, with all due respect to the Albanian government and people, violates international law” and, “therefore, we cannot be in favor of this recognition of Kosovo”.
