Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said Serbia had lost Kosovo and should recognise the borders that emerged from the conflicts of the 1990s, escalating a diplomatic exchange between Tirana and Belgrade over the Ibar River and Kosovo’s sovereignty.
In a post on X, Rama rejected accusations that Albania was pursuing the creation of a “Greater Albania” and said Tirana had no territorial claims against Serbia.
“Albania has no claim whatsoever on Serbian territory and no need to invent one. Nor do we need a ‘Greater Albania’ to stand with Kosovo,” Rama wrote.
The Albanian prime minister said Kosovo was an independent state whose citizens had their own republic, institutions and right to determine their future.
“Serbia lost Kosovo,” Rama said. “Repeating that it did not may perhaps turn defeat into victory in the geography of political imagination, but unfortunately maps are less accommodating.”
Serbia does not recognise Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008 following the 1998-99 war and a period of United Nations administration. Belgrade continues to regard Kosovo as part of its territory.
Rama said Kosovo’s territory and the natural resources within its borders did not belong to Serbia.
The exchange began with a dispute involving the foreign ministers of Albania and Serbia over the Ibar, a river that flows through both Serbia and Kosovo.
Rama described the Ibar as a cross-border water system and said Serbia had the right to manage resources within its jurisdiction but could not disregard possible consequences for neighbouring countries.
“Rivers have the inconvenient habit of following geography rather than diplomatic arguments,” he wrote.
Rama also said the rights, security, property, language and religious and cultural heritage of Kosovo’s Serb community must be protected.
However, he accused Belgrade of inconsistency for warning Albania against ethnic expansionism while continuing to refer to the territory of another sovereign state as Serbian.
“Before borders become less important, there is one small prerequisite: accepting those that already exist,” Rama said.
He added that Albania wanted good relations with Serbia and supported the European integration of the entire Western Balkans, including Serbia. But he said regional cooperation could not require neighbouring countries to accept Belgrade’s interpretation of history.
“The Balkans have already paid too much, in blood and lost time, for that,” Rama said.