Prime Minister Edi Rama, accompanied by Foreign Minister Ditmir Bushati, is paying a 24-hour visit to Pristina to attend the inauguration ceremony of the President of the Republic of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi.
Prime Minister Rama held at noon a meeting with Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa. In a release for the media, the two Prime Ministers said they were very pleased with the meeting and talks between them. They praised the level of cooperation and agreement to address other issues that enhance further the cooperation and exchanges between the two countries, and announced preparations for the third joint meeting between the two governments.
Prime Minister Edi Rama:
“Hello!
It is a pleasure to have this visit 24-hour in Pristina, which relates to the need to honour the new president at the inauguration ceremony tomorrow, started with the friendly conversation with the Prime Minister and discussed the agenda of the next meeting of the two governments, based on the fact that we have a full agreement because, as figures have shown, this process of co-governance of problems and issues of common interest has given us very good results. Suffice it to have a look at the figures of export trade exchanges on both sides of the border, to understand not only how much we have done together, but also what great potential there is, because there are still problems to address and issues to be resolved, in order to transform this space in an open space of exchanges, and through these exchanges increase the welfare of our people on both sides.
On the other hand it is important to emphasize that we are preparing for the third stage of the Berlin Process, which will take us in Paris this year, along with the prime ministers of the region. I’m very proud that the success story of the meeting of the two governments is a reason for us to promote together a broader regional process to remove tariff barriers and to facilitate at maximum exchanges between people and goods, in order to broaden at maximum the space for Albanian enterprises in Albania and Kosovo, but also in the region.”
Prime Minister Isa Mustafa:
“Hello to all of you. It was a special pleasure for me to meet today with the Prime Minister of Albanian Mr Edi Rama. We discussed many issues. We praised our fraternal cooperation, the cooperation of the institutions of the Republic of Kosovo with the institutions of the Republic of Albania, our economic cooperation. We also noted that we have achieved a lot in the implementation of the agreements that we signed last year, and also the agreements that were signed at the first meeting in Prizren and then in Tirana, in many fields, in economy, in the field of education, science, culture, in the field of trade cooperation. We also we agreed that we will continue with joint meetings of the two governments, and will work together to prepare for the next meeting, where we will consider the works carried out so far, but also the activities that we have an interest to carry out jointly, because cooperation with Albania is of special interest both for the Republic of Kosovo and Albania”.
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Prime Minister Edi met with the chairman of the Assembly of Kosovo, Kadri Veseli, and had a working lunch with leaders of the opposition.
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Prime Minister Rama met also with the Mayor of Pristina, Shpend Ahmeti, in his office. After the meeting, Mr Ahmed and Prime Minister Rama had a press release.
Mayor of Pristina, Shpend Ahmeti:
I had the pleasure to welcome the Prime Minister of Albania, Mr Edi Rama, and discuss with him the latest political developments in Kosovo. As I have always done, I listened to his friendly recommendation and criticism, which Mr Rama conveyed to me as mayor, but also to the opposition parties for the sake of Kosovo and its future. As always, it was a friendly conversation. I thank you for the visit and for finding the time to visit us in the municipality of Pristina.
Prime Minister Edi Rama:
I believe that what the words of the mayor are an expression of his brotherly hospitality and generosity, because I didn’t have any criticism. I simply exchanged with the mayor some very friendly opinions, as we have always done, and also I had the pleasure to visit him in his office in the municipality, and to hear from him that sooner than later citizens of Pristina will have a building that will be increasingly a mirror of the ambition of the mayor and of the citizens of Pristina for Kosovo’s capital city.
