UNMIK/PR/1225
PRISTINA – SRSG Søren Jessen-Petersen encouraged Albania’s participation in regional dialogue today during his official visit to Tirana.
“It is very important that the states neighbouring Kosovo are part of the dialogue as we accelerate the process implementing the standards that will take us to talks on the future status of Kosovo,” Mr. Jessen-Petersen said after his first meeting with the president of Albania, Mr. Alfred Moisiu.
President Moisiu said Albania’s concern for Kosovo is part of its desire to see the region as a whole move forward. “Albania is interested in a just and comprehensive solution in Kosovo, not only because 90 percent of those that live there are Albanians, but because stability and a just solution in Kosovo are stability for all of our region,” he said.
“The president has reaffirmed that Albania is firmly in support of seeing a multiethnic Kosovo that is a safe place for all where everybody born and living there has a future,” Mr. Jessen-Petersen said.
The SRSG also held substantive meetings with Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano and Foreign Minister Kastriot Islami, whom he had both met before in previous capacities.
Speaking at the end of his visit, Mr. Jessen-Petersen elaborated on four levels of dialogue important to progress in Kosovo, including an internal dialogue between the majority and minority communities in Kosovo and a dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade, “where we recognize Belgrade’s legitimate interests, but legitimate interests that cannot substitute for the direct and primary role of the institutions in Kosovo,” he said.
“The third level of dialogue is the dialogue involving all the states in the region including, and I would even say notably, Albania, because of the clear regional dimensions of the Kosovo issue,” the SRSG emphasized. Mr. Jessen-Petersen said that a fourth level of dialogue should take place between Kosovo, the regional states, and the international community “that brings us closer to an international consensus on how to more forward on the future in Kosovo.”
The SRSG also repeated his call for the Kosovo Serbs to take part in elections, saying that he expected their participation as essential at this crucial juncture. “If they decide not to participate they will not be represented in the dialogue that will move Kosovo forward towards also status discussions. And clearly they must be part of that dialogue and that is why I cannot imagine that they will not participate in the elections,” the SRSG stated.