PRESEVO: Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said on Tuesday he was confident his historic visit to Serbia would help open a new era of ties despite a very public row with his hosts over Kosovo.

“Despite the difficulties, I am confident that we have opened a new page in the relations with Serbia,” Rama said on a visit to the ethnic-Albanian town of Presevo in southern Serbia.

At the start of what was supposed to be a fence-mending visit to Serbia on Monday, the first by an Albanian premier in 68 years, Rama clashed with his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic over Kosovo’s independence.

“I told Vucic, we are not in a battle for a Greater Albania but for a greater Europe that should gather all Albanians along with all other nations and countries,” he told the crowd that turned out to greet him in Presevo amid tight security.

“The minorities should be bridges that unite us, not separate us,” he said in an address to local business leaders, politicians and young people. Tempers flared between Rama and Vucic over Kosovo at a joint press conference in Belgrade on Monday broadcast live on television.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2014