Serbian PM to make historic visit toAlbania

BELGRADE:

Prime  Minister Aleksandar Vucic will on
Wednesday become the first Serbian
government head to visit Albania ,aiming
to improve the fragile relations between the
two Balkan nations.

His visit comes six months after that of Albania's
Prime Minister Edi Rama to Belgrade-- the firet
visit to Serbia by a Tirana government head for
68 years,
 

Relation between Serbians and Albanaians
are straned over the question of Kosovo a
territory with an enthnic Albanian majority
that declared independance from Serbia in 2008
with the support of the United States,but remains
un-recognised by Belgrade and its ally Russia
as well as others

Bilateral tensions have also been fuelled  by
claims of the ethnic Albanian minority in Serbia
for more autonomy or even a unfication with
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority,


Vucic said he was looking forward to the visist
with optimism,stressing that the differences could
only be solve through dialogue.

For Serbian analyst Dusan Janji "the improvement of
relations between Tirana and  Belgrade is the key for
the stability in the Balkans"

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

Serbia has ever since denounced what it claims
to be a Tirana-sponsored "Great Albanian "project,
although both Albanian and Kosovo authorities
assure that no such plan exists,

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

AFP