“The war in Ukraine makes the Open Balkans initiative even more necessary,” said Prime Minister Edi Rama in his speech on the second day of the Summit of this regional initiative that took place in Ohrid, North Macedonia.

Focusing on the conflict between Serbia and Kosovo, Rama gave a message to Pristina, where he said that the problems of the past can only be solved through rapprochement.

 “This is an opportunity to talk about the Open Balkans as in the Open Balkans and we can not come to an Open Balkans meeting and talk as we are used to when we go to Brussels. We will speak very openly and we must maintain and strengthen this characteristic without fear that from open speaking we will have more problems than reasons to join. We are meeting for the first time at an Open Balkans summit since the war in Ukraine broke. This war makes the Open Balkans an even greater necessity than it was before this war began. The Open Balkans is important to our people. We know Serbia’s special relationship between Russia, we did not wait for the war in Ukraine to learn that there is a history between the two countries, we did not wait for the war to know that there is an unresolved conflict between Serbia and Kosovo. But between turning back to the future and turning our eyes to the future, we have chosen the latter and we will do this without closing our eyes to unresolved problems, but realizing that they can be solved only by talking”, said Rama.

The head of government recalled the clash between the US and Japan, or that between Israel and the UAE years ago, where he said that the countries have already tuned their eyes to the future and have not remained hostage to previous conflicts. According to Rama, the “Open Balkans” is an initiative made for the people.

Rama also spoke about the consequences of the war in Ukraine, where he stated that the crises produced can only be resolved through cooperation between the countries. He mentioned the problem with the supply of grain and also the electricity crisis, as he warned that the problem will no longer be the price, but the fact that there may be no energy in the market.

This summit of the Open Balkans was joined for the first time by Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, while only Kosovo was missing from the 6 countries of the Western Balkans.

/Klara Ruci/