Lepaja: Albania is not working against Kosovo even though they don't agree on everything

Political commentator from Pristina, Fadil Lepaja, believes that there are no functional issues in the relationship between Kosovo and Albania, but differences exist in how Tirana views the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

While many politicians from Kosovo recently assess that relations between Albania and Kosovo have never been worse, attributing it to Prime Minister Albin Kurti, Lepaja does not share that opinion.

"There are no significant functional problems in the relations between Kosovo and Albania; there are also no major differences in the policies of Kosovo and Albania concerning their mutual relations. Albania has recognized Kosovo, but differences exist regarding how Albanian politics sees the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia. Albanian politics, in that regard, wants to mediate more or less. The relationship between Rama, Vucic, and Thaci, who even discussed territorial exchange, was known; however, it is known that the European community and the current Western policy actually do not want that, they don't want more playing with borders," Lepaja emphasizes.

He claims that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has set new foundations on which the normalization of relations should be built, as opposed to previous discussions that revolved around entirely different frameworks.

"Simply put, Mr. Vucic and Mr. Rama were somehow trying to avoid the factual situation that Kosovo is a state and that no normalization can be achieved without recognizing it or accepting it as a reality," Lepaja says.

He also emphasizes that, although Albania does not agree on everything with Kosovo, it certainly is not working against it.

"Albania is simply oriented towards Europe, is a NATO member, and is pro-Western. There is a boundary that no politician in Albania will cross. On the other hand, Mr. Vucic and Serbian policy need to decide where and how they will go, whether towards the West or the East, whether with NATO or against NATO. The choice is not on the Albanians, neither in Kosovo nor in Albania; simply, if Serbia turns to Europe and the West, I believe that we in Kosovo will have almost no problems with Serbia. The Balkans will be a Europe without borders, and one won't even know where the border used to be," Lepaja evaluates.

Above all, he adds, "we must accept and recognize each other."

"I am confident that Kosovo will sort out all its internal relations with the communities, including the Serbian community, and that the Serbian community in Kosovo will truly have nothing to complain about," Lepaja concludes.