Cakaj announces joint session of Kosovan and Albanian governments in Shkoder

The Kosovan and Albanian governments will soon hold a joint session in Shkoder, Albanian Foreign Minister, Gent Cakaj and his Kosovo counterpart, Glauk Konjufca announced at a meeting today.

During today’s meeting, Cakaj also suggested the signing of two other agreements. An agreement on the costs and responsibilities for Kosovo’s lobbying and another agreement on sharing experiences on the so-called screening process related to the opening of the EU accession negotiations.

Cakaj and Konjufca said that trade with Albania had increased by 300 % since taxes on goods from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were introduced.

Cakaj also announced in Pristina today that „there is a symbolic border between Kosovo and Albania and that Tirana is ready to remove it.“ He also met with Kosovo President, Hashim Thaci.

In May 2019, in the Albanian city of Has, Thaci said that the citizens of Kosovo and Albania were together in the trenches and that they would live free in the near future in a common Kosovo-Albania state. At the time, Thaci said that the dream of a border-free space between Kosovo and Albania could easily come true.

In recent years, both Kosovo and Albanian leaders have repeatedly spoken out about removing the borders between the two countries.

The first joint session of the governments of the two countries was held in Prizren in early 2014 when the „Declaration on Strategic Partnership and Cooperation“ was signed.

Additional agreements between the two governments and cooperation in several fields were also signed based on this declaration. Also, Kosovo and Albania signed dozens of agreements since then. The last joint session was held on the Albanian Flag Day in late November last year in Pec/Peja.

The Self-determination Movement has often criticized the fact that, according to them, no stronger investment was made in reciprocal relations despite numerous signed agreements.