Serbia Albania Agreement

17. Dezember 2020

„The Washington agreement on the 5G network is primarily for U.S. interests in the region,“ Haxha told TRT World. Thirdly, Kosovo`s agreement on membership of the „mini-Schengen zone“ has no practical value. On the formal level, there is no unity like the „schengen mini-zone“ – it is something fictitious. The so-called „Schengen mini-zone“ means nothing more than rhetorical support from Albania, Northern Macedonia and Serbian leaders (who met three times in Novi Sad, Ohrid and Durres between October and December 2019) to develop plans that would facilitate cross-border travel and merchandise exchanges between the countries concerned. Therefore, if no concrete steps are taken to formalize such cooperation plans, Kosovo`s commitment to join the „mini-Schengen zone“ will not bring much water to the normalization of its economic relations with Serbia. With regard to Serbia`s commitments, Serbia has an obligation to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, to classify Hezbollah as a terrorist group and to prohibit the use of 5G devices supplied by unreliable suppliers (i.e..dem Chinese company Huawei). In 2018, the Serbian and Albanian tourism ministries signed a cooperation agreement aimed at attracting more foreign tourists – and encouraging their own citizens to visit each other. Serbia`s President Aleksandar Vucic and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama signed an online agreement on Monday under which citizens of both countries can enter the other country only with their identity cards, rather than with passports as is currently the case.

After the ceremony, Albanian Rama hailed the agreement as a „positive step.“ „The agreement gives Serbia rights and only obligations to Kosovo,“ says Daut Dauti, an Albanian historian and political analyst. How does the Washington agreement fit into this strategy? The illustrated plans can only be carried out with the support of the United States. What Belgrade and Pristina have aimed at is not so much an agreement as a set of principles that must be developed before they can be implemented, and the development can be as contested as the agreement itself. The second point is that while the Washington agreement requires both sides to withdraw 5G devices „provided by unreliable suppliers,“ Serbia`s commitment to Huawei could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars, and Kosovo may not.