Let me extend some thanks.

First of all, to the Serbian part for the organization and care for ensuring optimal safety conditions and making us feel relaxed to carry out a mission that was not easy.

A glacier is broken, a glacier stratified during long decades of wars, conflicts and inconsolable separation in the heart of Europe.

We went to Belgrade with an outstretched hand of friendship and today we are closer than we were two days ago, although the road we need to walk through in order to become real friends is much longer than the road we made in these two days. But, if true friendship can naturally take its time, serious partnership and intensive cooperation in the interests of each party do not wait. We will engage intensively in this process by being aware and by communicating worldwide the awareness that this is an extraordinary new time of peace for the Balkans and a fantastic opportunity to make possible that the next generation will not inherit the trauma and traumatic consequences of such a long period of wars, conflicts, and separation in the Balkans, and especially between Albanians and Serbs.

Thanks from the heart with deep gratitude to Albanians of Presevo!

I want to be very honest;

It has been impossible and I believe it will be impossible for me to put into words what I felt and especially the extraordinary weight of responsibility when I was awarded the high title “Citizen of Honor” of a territory inhabited by Albanians who have much suffered, who have made a lot of sacrifices, who have encountered a lot of obstacles in order to have a normal life, and I feel proud that they finally feel represented and supported.

I assure all our sisters and brothers in the Valley that I will not cease and we will not cease our efforts to ensure that they enjoy the same freedom and the same rights enjoyed by Serbs in Northern Kosovo. It is the model of what we are as Albanians and what we want to be in the eyes of others, but primarily in relationship with ourselves and with how we treat others.

We do want neither more nor less, but what belongs to us.

A special humble thanks to all Albanians of Kosovo, who made our return from Serbia to Albania through Kosovo an unforgettable event, by standing in the streets of each inhabited area, for welcoming us and making us feel miraculously well and be back with our hearts overflowing with happiness.

Thanks to all Albanians wherever they are, to all citizens of Albania and to those from abroad, in Albanian territories or in foreign countries where they live and work, who spared no words to give us support and make us feel wonderfully well.

But again, I want to say quite frankly that I personally do not feel keeping up with the extraordinary good words at my address. I am happy to keep up with the expectations of our people.

It is very necessary for me to reflect in order to thoroughly understand all this enthusiastic support addressed to me.

But I am telling something everybody with certainty:

Thanks to all this support, I feel today smaller than yesterday and I see responsibility as a mountain even higher than yesterday.

Obviously, I will do all everything that is up to me to keep up with this extraordinary responsibility.

I also thank all the journalists and entrepreneurs that accompanied our delegation on this trip and conferred the appropriate dimension of a solemn seriousness to this trip, making me feel very proud of our media. And I would certainly like to see the media in Serbia liberated from a bizarre complex towards Albanians today.

Finally, I come before you with conviction that regardless of how long I speak, I will never be able to describe the emotion and above all the scary feeling of responsibility, in relation to all the support and this enthusiastic encouragement.

Therefore, unlike other times, I am concluding here without dwelling too much, in order to give each of you the opportunity to ask questions that probably have not been asked.

 

Questions – Answers:

Mr. Rama, in Belgrade you hesitated to describe your visit a success, but during dinner, after the press conference that you had, you succeeded to sign a very important agreement, the agreement for youth exchanges. Now that everything is over, can this be called a successful visit? You will be back in Belgarde, as your counterpart said, in December. Vucic said yesterday before the Serbian media that he could not hit with a stick, implying that if he could, he would do it. How will you be back in Belgrade?

Firstly, I have never called a successful visit any of my visits. I do not use this expression, successful visit, since it sounds a bit old-fashioned and is often used in this headquarters, where the successful have been called also the lions’ arrivals from Burundi, for the Zoo.

But I certainly consider it an important historical moment. For me, the visit has completely fulfilled its purpose, as far as we are concerned.

As for the statements of the other party, I feel sorry for a very simple fact, and you cannot help but feel sorry when you see people trying to cover the sun with one finger, or are unable to open their eyes to see a reality that is in front of everyone’s eyes. And, beyond this, I believe that there is no need to add any comments or jokes, since I could think of a lot of jokes about the stick, what my colleague can do with the stick, but I am convinced that he used it as a metaphor and let’s it remain as such, so that we will not get into histories of sticks.

There is an annual visit of the Prime Minister of China, in the framework of cooperation with 16 countries of Central and Eastern Europe. As you remember, last year it was held in Bucharest. This year it is going to be in Belgrade, and I have no problem to go to Belgrade and I hope the Serbs will not perceive as a problem me being in Belgrade, for it is not me that creates their problem in relation to Kosovo, but it is up to them to solve as soon as possible this big problem of theirs with their past and future.

 

The meeting that you had with your counterpart Vucic, the statements that you made, made the hearts of Albanians, Albanians of Kosovo and Presevo overflow with joy, and you came out as the winner of that “duel” or meeting, while Mr. Vucic was addressed a lot of criticism from the Serbian part. How much does this situation help the future of bilateral relations and how many documents have you left to be developed further, so that this visit, although an historical one, can open a new path of cooperation?

In order to bring this conversation to a normal level, I will refer – on the basis of what Elia said previously – to the dinner that your paper called as secret. Meanwhile, a dinner of which even Irfan is aware cannot be called secret, can it?

The dinner was a result of our insistence to sign an agreement with content on youth exchange, refusing to sign a general agreement, in one of the elements that we consider as very important and which is a key element of the Berlin process, encouraged by Chancellor Merkel. We have asked the content of this agreement to be the one that guarantees young Albanians and Serbs the mutual recognition of diplomas. I am very pleased that during the “secret dinner” of “Panorama” we could make a full panorama of the things that unite us and should unite us, having no reason to not agree with the other party on the things that divide us. But as for the things that clearly divide us, to be honest they are not things that divide us but things that divide the Serbs with their future. For this reason, I said it in Belgarde and I will repeat it here, the sooner they recognize Kosovo, the better it will be for them for they will be freed from the heavy burden with which, as you could see, they don’t know how to deal and in a totally illogical and surprising way try to put it on others.

I believe that the mutual recognition of diplomas and the free movement of citizens of both countries with IDs are two extraordinary steps forward, if we look only at two days ago; but if we look only forward, they are two very modest steps. As I have said in other occasion, this is only the beginning, I believe also in this aspect.

 

Hello Mr. Rama! Mr. Vuçiç declared that he felt betrayed by you because of the statement on Kosovo. Will you please tell us if you had a chance during the tête-à-tête to show him your position before going in front of the cameras?

Secondly, you talked about the melting of the glacier between Tirana and Belgrade, while Mr. Vuçiç today repeated that it was a missed chance to melt the glaciers in the bilateral relations. Where do you base your optimism, since we notice two opposing views?

Firstly, as far as I know, loyalty is an ethical instrument of Albanians. I do not know that Serbs have loyalty as an instrument. It is not to my knowledge that we have ever given our world of honor and then be considered as the ones who broke it. But perhaps they didn’t use this word and it is better to not dwell into this issue of loyalty, because we will make history and I believe that history must be overcome in order to write a new history.

As for the interpretation of the breaking of ice or glacier, everyone is free to do as they see it.  I see it this way. I am confident that time will prove soon that it is this way. I believe that the agreement that followed is a concrete deal of the broken glacier. Then, of course, let us not forget that the long, the too long time we come from doesn’t make it so easy to break the glacier but also the mutual understanding on the depth of breaking. It is a process and it would be quite abnormal if it were the opposite, I believe.

 

Mr. Prime Minister, while you were in Belgrade former Prime Minister Berisha posted on Facebook that you were humiliated, because the Albanian flag was missing in the ceremonial at the “Serbia” Palace. Will you please tell us why the Albanian flag was missing in Belgrade?

Secondly, in the press conference you declared that you invited Prime Minister Vuçiç to pay a visit to Tirana. Do you think he welcomed your invitation and will he come to Tirana?

Now, I want to be very honest with you. I cannot believe that my predecessor would want the Albanian Prime Minister to be humiliated in Belgrade. Moreover, having he passed in front of many guards, he must know well that the Honorary Guards have the flag of the country they represent. The Republican Guard of Albania cannot hold the flag of Serbia or of any other country, when the Prime Minister of Serbia or any other Prime Minister comes to Albania. The same, the Republican Guard of Serbia cannot hold the flag of Albania.

Such is the symbolism of protocol. But I believe it is a matter of age. Age can bring unwanted consequences. It is unlikely to be a deliberate forgetfulness but it is, I believe, some kind of memory loss in the biological process of my predecessors. So, understanding this fact and respecting every old person, I believe it is not appropriate to comment further on this. We are obliged to forgive to the elderly their lack of memory, because the day will come that we will also fall in these kinds of situations, and it will not be good for us to take it for the worse. I don’t take it amiss.

As for the invitation, it was extended to the Serbian Prime Minister to return the visit. I believe that the visit will happen, not after 68 years, but hopefully next year. And it is up to us, even here in Tirana, to continue showing that Albanians have no complex from the past and that we are increasingly the new Europeans of the Balkans.

 

Mr. Prime Minister, I am returning to the issue mentioned before by my colleague on the December meeting organized by the Chinese Prime Minister. You said this meeting was held one year ago in Bucharest. After the agreement in Belgrade, what will the next step be to collaborate with Serbia? Will you have concrete projects to ask for China’s support, since this country has shown interest to invest in the Balkans in the recent years? I am thinking about the meetings you had in China, but also the interest they have shown for certain infrastructure projects.

I would like to bring your attention on the fact that beyond the relationship between Albania and Serbia, there is another regional relationship that needs to be developed and strengthened among all the countries in the region. Beyond the parties that compose the region, the region has the historical opportunity to act as one party face to Europe. I believe that very soon we will continue to show that we are very clear on how the region can move forward as one party. We will promote in Brussels joint initiatives, not only with Serbia but also with other countries. I am convinced that we will be coordinated sooner rather than later, in a single message that “today United Europe needs the Balkans as much as United Balkans needs Europe!” This is a belief that is gaining ground. I am sure that soon this will be a common message of all of the countries in the region. Separately, we would have an extremely difficult road to European Integration, meaning with this the road for the modernization and welfare of each country. Meanwhile, it would be very easy to deal with this together. Together we make a very interesting economy, together we make a very interesting market and together we make the space that Europe has been missing.

This is our vision!

Albanian presented this vision in written at the Berlin Conference. A new deal on the Balkans – which we suggested in that Conference and which implies not only a deal among us in the Balkans, but  also between the Balkans and Europe – will very soon be on the agenda of relationships among us in Europe. For, there is no other way. On the other hand, there is no alternative project, neither of enlargement nor of integration, to enlargement for Europe and integration for us.

So, the rest is useless maneuvers to the today’s politics here in Europe, in Serbia or anywhere. We are really lucky that we are not victims of today’s politics, but on the contrary we are in a position from where we see very clearly the future.

 

Mr. Rama, might your statement on Kosovo in Belgrade turn the issue of Kosovo from an international issue into an issue between the two states?

I believe that Kosovo, Albania, Albanians of Albania and Kosovo are where they need to be. Serbia is not where it needs to be in relation to Kosovo. More than Kosovo, this fact damages Serbia itself. This is crystal clear. It is as clear as the uselessness of trying to cover the sun with a finger and what people miss when they close their eyes to reality. But I don’t think so. Anyhow, we have no reasons to reflect on this issue. The Serbs, on the contrary, have all the reasons to reflect on this issue.

 

Mr. Rama, have there been any reactions from officials of the European Union or communications with other international partners on this visit and the position of the Albanian part? The second question is about the dinner you had with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo, Mr. Hoxhaj, where Prime Minister Thaçi was missing. Why this choice? What were the topics discussed in this dinner?

We stopped in Kosovo after a long journey in order to eat something, and we took advantage of the hospitality of our friends whom I thank. Prime Minister Thaçi wasn’t yesterday in Kosovo, while our stay in Prizren was due to the great pleasure you can get from Prizren when you have a chance to stop there, not to mention the fantastic cuisine of Kosovo, although later you cannot help but go on a diet.

I don’t believe there are reasons for the international community to not be pleased. Both their statements and the general feeling – not to mention the fact that even Andi Bushati greeted this visit – are enough to understand that we are on the same wavelength with the entire international community. This is a meeting which time will show that it marked a turning point not only for bilateral relations, but also for relations in the region.

 

You talked about agreements that were signed, but are there any agreements in the agenda that were not signed?

There aren’t! These are agreements that we aimed to sign. As far as unsigned agreements are concerned, something I learned from the preparations for the visit, there are 17 agreements that have been written, re-written, edited, re-edited, amended and re-amended since 1978. So, if 17 agreements are waiting to be signed since 1978 and we signed 3 agreements in such a short time, I believe that the turn of the others will come very soon; there is not doubt on this.  But what we want to become soon a reality is increase of trade exchanges and an increased presence of entrepreneurship, be it Albanian in Serbia or Serbian in Albania.

 

Do you think the Balkans is more freed from the anguishes of the past? You were labeled as the second “drone”. How do you feel about this? 

We have become a family of drones, I believe. Since my brother flew the first one, I couldn’t help but fly the second one.

Thank you!