Serbian PM Makes Historic Visit to Albania

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic arrived in Albania on Wednesday for the first such visit by a Serbian head of government as the two Balkan countries seek to improve fragile ties.

Vucic was greeted on arrival by his Albanian counterpart Edi Rama, who visited Belgrade six months ago in the first visit by a Tirana head of government for 68 years.

Talks between the two prime ministers were expected to focus on Kosovo, a former Serbian province with an ethnic Albanian majority which unilaterally declared independence in 1998.

Belgrade still rejects Kosovo's independence, which has been recognised by some 100 countries, including the United States and most European Union members.

Kosovo is at heart of bilateral tensions between the two countries. Such tensions have been exacerbated by claims from Serbia's ethnic Albanian minority for more autonomy or even unification with Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority.

After talks with Rama and meetings with President Ilir Meta and other officials on Wednesday, Vucic was to address a regional economic forum on Thursday.

Tight security measures were taken for the visit with some 1,300 policemen deployed in the capital, local media reported. Helicopters were hovering while traffic was blocked in areas.

Both Vucic and Rama voiced optimism over the outcome of the visit and future relations between their countries.

"I am convinced that Albania and Serbia, Albanians and Serbs, could together do for the Balkans what France and Germany did for Europe after World War II," Rama told Agence France Presse ahead of the visit.

- Decades of chilly ties - 

Political analysts said that the two countries were key to the stability of the volatile Balkans, torn apart by a series of inter-ethnic wars in the 1990s. 

"The region's European future depends also on reconciliation between Albanians and Serbs and cooperation between Albania and Serbia," political analyst Albert Rakipi told AFP.

Analyst Lufti Dervishi echoed the view, stressing the Serbian prime minister's visit was breaking "decades of chill between the two countries."

But he added that despite the positive signals, "tomorrow both countries will stick to their views over Kosovo."

The relations between Serbs and Albanians have also remained strained because Belgrade fears a "Great Albania," a nationalist project seeking to unite all Albanians in one state, including Kosovo and parts of Macedonia and Serbia.

Both Albanian and Kosovo authorities assure that no such plan exists.

A war between Serbian armed forces and the pro-independence guerrilla movement in Kosovo in 1998-1999 was followed by a NATO bombing campaign to stop a crackdown by late president Slobodan Milosevic's regime against the ethnic Albanian population.

The Serbian army and police were eventually forced by NATO to leave Kosovo, which in 2008 proclaimed independence.

Last November, during his visit to Belgrade, Rama called on Vucic to recognise the reality of Kosovo's independence, provoking angry responses from his host and the Serbian public.

Despite the friction, the two men agreed to continue working towards an improvement in relations.

Vucic's visit also comes at a time of tension elsewhere in the Balkans.

Earlier this month Macedonian police clashed with an ethnic Albanian armed group, most of whose members were from Kosovo. Eighteen people were killed, including eight police officers.