Eurasia Press & News
The cancellation of a joint meeting between the two governments due to the tense situation in Kosovo’s Serb-majority north has further damaged already frayed relations between Albin Kurti and Edi Rama.
The final steps to organize the ninth annual joint meeting between Kosovo’s and Albania’s governments were still being taken late on Tuesday evening at the Gjakova/Djakovica city library in western Kosovo.
“Everything was ready. Even yesterday afternoon, when the press communication from Albania was released, the work was still ongoing. We worked until around 10pm,” Engjell Berisha, director of the library, told BIRN.
The meeting was due to take place on Wednesday. But in a last-minute twist, late on Tuesday, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced that he had decided to cancel the meeting.
Rama claimed that the meeting could not be held “in the circumstances of Kosovo’s aggravated relations with the entire Euro-Atlantic community”, referring to international criticism of Kosovo’s handling of developments in its northern Serb-majority municipalities.
Only a few hours earlier on Tuesday, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti had announced that the plans remained intact.
This is the latest in a series of an open dispute between Rama and Kurti that experts said will only damage their relationship even further – and which has now turned into a very personal fight.
