US urges Albania to avoid "careless rhetoric" following Prime Minister Edi Rama's decision to propose a common president and a unified security policy for both Albania and neighboring Kosovo, angering Serbia .
The US embassy in Tirana has expressed dissatisfaction with Rama's comments.
"Careless rhetoric about unification is not useful and is considered detrimental to Albania's relations with its neighbors. "We call on all leaders to maintain good relations with neighboring countries and to abandon the divisive rhetoric of the past," he said in a statement.
In particular, the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, addressing the Kosovo Parliament, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the country's independence from Belgrade, said: "Kosovo and Albania will have a common foreign policy and not just the same embassies and diplomats. delegations. "Why not have a common president, a symbol of national unity and a single national security policy?"
For its part, the European Union stressed that the Albanian prime minister's remarks "do not help the situation", while Serbia harshly criticized Mr Rama, accusing him of seeking to build a "Greater Albania" in the region. .
Commission spokeswoman Catherine Ray said Tirana would focus on EU accession reforms, saying comments seen as interventions in other countries were not "helping".
He added that the EU supports "reconciliation and regional co-operation" in the Western Balkans.
"The EU expects all regions to build constructive and cooperative relations, focusing on their reforms, in order to move forward on the path to EU membership," he concluded.
