BELGRADE - Economic cooperation between Albania and Serbia and in this frame the expected Nis Forum, political issues, cooperation of civil society, the reconstruction work in the Capital Belgrade, all of these were some of the topics discussed with different authorities in the frame of the wisely prepared agenda of my visit to Belgrade by the Serb Chamber of Commerce and Industry from October 4 to 6, 2016.

In the previous editions Albanian Daily News has published the interviews and talks with the President of the Serb Chamber of Commerce and Industry Marko Cadez, the Advisor, Nenad Djurdjevic and the Senior Expert Associate, Marko Mandic, the Managing Director of the National Tourism Organization of Serbia, Marija Labovic, the Minister without portfolio responsible for European integration, Jadranka Joksimovic and the last one is the following interview with the Belgrade city manager Goran Vesic.

I also had the privilege to share opinion with DushanJanjic, President of Active Serbia and Veran Matic, N92 News Editor- in- Chief and President of B92 board of directors, and with the latter we agreed in principle to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between Albanian Daily News and B92.

The last interview was with the Belgrade city manager, Goran Vesic who was surrounded by architects with maps and his aides when I arrived at his office and he was very kind to introduce me with his collaborators who seemed to be very busy.

Despite the busy time Vesic sat down with me ready to answer my questions which covered different current issues of the bilateral relations between Serbia and Albania and Belgrade and Tirana but also old memories when he was a close aide and friend of the late Premier, Zoran Djindjic, the sixth Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, who was assassinated at 12:23 p.m. Central European Time on Wednesday, March 12, 2003, in Belgrade. Djindjic was fatally shot by a sniper while exiting his vehicle outside of the back entrance of the Serbian government headquarters.

Asked about his impressions on the collaboration with Mr. Djindjic with whom he was a close friend, Vesic paused for a moment because of the old painful memories but he revealed that in the ’90 he was the chief of staff in the cabinet of the late Premier and they had a very close cooperation.

"And yes, I have to say that one of the first meetings of Djindjic and me was with Mr. Meta after a long period of no real cooperation with Albania. So this was one of the first meetings of such nature. For me, that was quite a significant period for our country as it was also one of the things that opened up the relations between Serbia and Albania after such a long period. I see this as an opening of many opportunities for our country as well. We have undergone many changes from that time until now and this is why now we are a candidate for EU accession. He was one of those politicians in Serbia, and same thing I should say even about Mr. Meta, who didn’t look to the past but looked forward, talked more of the future more than anything else," said the veteran politician but young in age Vesic.

On the other hand, Vesic recalled the two-day visit of Albanian Speaker Ilir Meta, when he was Deputy PM and Foreign Minister to Serbia on March 11, 2010, saying that Meta’s visit was very important and key to advancing of Serbia-Albania relations since it was the first important visit after a very long period of no exchanges,

Painful feelings of a collaborator and close friend of Djindjic as Vesic were noticeable, but he continued with the interview at length ready to answer any questions.

“I think that it is not enough just to establish good cooperation between two countries. I believe that the vital thing is to cooperate between the cities,” Belgrade city manager Goran Vesic said in the exclusive interview with Albanian Daily News.

According to him, sometimes it is more fruitful to establish good cooperation when you start cooperating with the parts of the country such as the cities or regions.

He further said Albanians don’t know much about Serbians and Serbians don’t know much about Albanians, so he said is very important to boost cooperation especially in the field of culture, students exchange, etc.

“What is very important is that the economic relationship is growing between these two countries because the economic relationship constitutes the basis of good relations between two countries,” Mr. Vesic stated highlighting the importance of the expected Nis Forum.

According to him, Serbia and Albania should further progress and promote their relations despite their positions in regard to Kosovo, underlined Vesic in the interview which follows:

- First of all, thank you for this interview. It is a great pleasure for me to be here at the Municipality of Belgrade. During my stay in Belgrade. I have had very important meetings with several officials where one of the main topics discussed was Nis forum to be held in Serbia. On the other hand, we also talked about the presentation of Serbia’s tourist offer in Tirana. So, as a veteran politician, can you say a few words about the development of the relations between Albania and Serbia?

- My opinion is that we do not know very much about each other. Thus Albanians don’t know much about Serbians and Serbians don’t know much about Albanians. This is a pity actually because we are two neighboring countries. Unfortunately during the socialism period and somehow even afterwards, our relationship was not developed.

What is very important is that the economic relationship is growing between these two countries because the economic relationship constitutes the basis of good relations between two countries.

For this reason, I believe that it is quite good that we have these upcoming events, especially the Nis forum and also the visits made by Prime Minister Edi Rama and his meetings with our Prime Minister Alexander Vucic. These are very important for the relations between the two countries.

Honestly, we are too small markets and if we want to progress it is recommendable that we cooperate together in order to see new investments for both countries in the future.

The history of our relationship is heavy; it has been burdened by some obstacles. However, this should not be an obstacle in the future and for the development of good relationship from now on. For example, you have France and Germany who have had the past with so many collisions and problems but this didn’t prevent them from cooperating together in the European Union or let it say being the engine of the European Union.

-Even Mr. Rama mentioned this few days ago. He said that the relations between Albania and Serbia are similar to those of France and Germany after the Second World War. So I am very happy to hear such a thing even from you.

-This is why I believe that we should turn to the future. We have to look forward to what is coming and leave the past behind. In this respect, I think that we have already established good grounds for future cooperation. In my opinion is not enough just to establish good cooperation between two countries. I believe that the vital thing is to cooperate between the cities. We have had the opportunity to discuss this issue with the Albanian Premier, Mr. Edi Rama when he was in Belgrade. He used to be the Mayor of Tirana before and we had the mutual idea to have the cooperation build not only on basis of the countries but also cooperation based on the cities and the regions. Because it is sometimes more fruitful to establish good cooperation when you start cooperating with the parts of the country such as the cities or regions.

-It seems to me like you are reading my mind and exhausting my questions so I have to change my questions agenda. So, my concrete question which is linked with what you said is how is the cooperation between Belgrade and Tirana?

-I am convinced that the cooperation between Belgrade and Tirana can be quite feasible and fruitful. And I don’t think that we should focus only on economic cooperation but also cultural cooperation, exchange of students as well as experience in various fields. What I mean when I say cooperation between the cities is for example Belgrade and Zagreb have quite a good cooperation and this good cooperation between the two cities has contributed to the establishing a better cooperation between the two countries.

-Is there any plan for twinning the two capitals or is it too soon for this?

-We should have an initiative to do something like that. Of course, this is something that can be made but first we should work on building such an initiative. Also Belgrade has been cooperation with Moscow. Soon we are going to have days of Moscow where in seven days they are going to present business, culture, music events, etc. Next we are going to present Belgrade days in Moscow. Thus, in the same patterns, we can do this even with other capitals.

Another example is the cooperation with Zagreb. The first entity that started such cooperation was the theater. So, two theaters from Belgrade and Zagreb started to exchange the plays and then they established cooperation and such relation evolved later on with the cooperation of the Mayors of the two cities who now have a very good cooperation. So, why not have same cooperation with Tirana.

I believe that it would be really quite a good idea to exchange experience in the field of culture between Tirana and Belgrade because I don’t think that we are very familiar with the culture of Tirana and Tirana with the culture of Belgrade. This could be the first step. Meantime, another good idea would be the exchange of students between the two capitals. This is something that also promotes the cooperation and cultural exchange. I don’t know whether you know that there are several streets in Belgrade dedicated to Albanians, like Skanderbeg, even the name of a very tall palace had the name Albania, restaurants, etc. This was due to the retrieval of our army in the WWI through Albania, this was probable the origin.

-In the frame, are there possibilities of having friendship association groups at local level of both cities?

-Yes, why not. This is quite feasible. In my opinion, it is always better to start with direct, concrete cooperation in some segments as such small segments will later on evolve in cooperation between the institutions. It will spread and I think we should do this as soon as possible.

-As a high authority of Belgrade, do you think that civil society of the capital can play a role in promotion of friendly relations between Belgrade and Tirana? In this regard, even between the two countries?

-Of course, the cooperation between the two capitals was first initiated by NGOs. I believe that this is one of the major elements that could be the basis of further cooperation in the future. Especially, one of the important segments of our cooperation could be tourism. As you might have heard, we have one of the fastest growing air companies in the Balkan region called Air Serbia. Soon, we are going to have flights to China and we are working in order to attract Chinese tourists to Serbia. And I see a very good chance for all of us that as soon as we attract tourists from China for instance , these tourists will not want to stay only in one place for many days because since they are in Europe they will want to see other places as well. So, one of the ideas would be to jointly operate to use this opportunity and attract tourists who will visit not only Serbia but also Albania. As you see, there are lots of opportunities and ideas where we can focus our cooperation. As I mentioned before, we are both small markets and for that reason, only by working together we can succeed. For the past two years, we in Belgrade have made progress in attracting investments, especially in terms of having very important projects. Maybe you have heard about Belgrade’s project water front which is going to be built on the bank of river Sava. We have expanded the airport of Belgrade and some other projects such as Ring Road, etc. In the last years, we have also undertaken several reforms in Serbia such public service companies’ reforms, we have introduced the labor act which have resulted in a more successful economy. Lately, we have seen in Belgrade lots of buildings being erected, also residential business buildings and shopping malls which in a way show the investments carried out in our capital city. One of the main pillars taken in consideration by someone who wants to invest in a country is the political stability of that country and this is something that we have shown as a country. In the last years, Serbia has shown a very good political stability. And this increased the willingness of the investors to come to Serbia and invest their money here.

The position of our country and the position of our Prime Minister show commitment to establishing good cooperation, dialogue with our neighbors and the region and this I believe is a good foundation for further progress in the future.

- Speaking about the relations with the neighbors, do you think that Kosovo will not be a burden in the relations between Albania and Serbia?

- Actually the position of Serbia and Albania regarding Kosovo is clear. Albania has recognized Kosovo as an independent country but on the other hand, Serbia based on its constitution sees Kosovo as part of its territory. So, this is quite clear. What we are trying to do in this respect is to develop a normalized relationship between Serbia and Kosovo with the assistance of European Union. We are trying to establish to have better situation and better cooperation. So in my opinion, the relations between Serbia and Albania should not be burdened by our relationship towards Kosovo because we are two independent countries. We have our political positions. However, we will continue to work in order to have better cooperation in the future even with Kosovo.

As far as you might have seen already, we are trying to revive the relations with Kosovo lately. What we are doing in this respect is that we are having different delegations, different negotiations and different people who are trying to assist in this respect. We have our prime minister and some European Union officials who are engaged too. This is a process and this is going to last, maybe even for several decades. Since Albania is not part of this process, the relationship between Serbia and Albania should evolve in different respects as two independent countries. And I think this is a good foundation for this.

- To conclude, I have heard that you have been a friend of the late Mr. Zoran Djindjic. Can you tell us something about your impressions on that person? Personally, I can tell one thing that when Albanian Speaker, Mr. Ilir Meta was the former deputy Premier he came to Serbia, I was with him too, and the first visit we had was at the cemetery where together we laid wreaths. So what can you say?

-Yes, actually in the ’90 I was the chief of staff in the cabinet of Mr. Djindjic and we had a very close cooperation. And yes, I have to say that one of our first meetings was with Mr. Meta after a long period of no real cooperation with Albania. So this was one of the first meetings of such nature. For me, that was quite a significant period for our country as it was also one of the things that opened up the relations between Serbia and Albania after such a long period. I see this as an opening of many opportunities for our country as well. We have undergone many changes from that time until now and this is why now we are a candidate for EU accession.

He was one of those politicians in Serbia, and same thing I should say even about Mr. Meta, who didn’t look to the past but looked forward, talked more of the future more than anything else.

To illustrate this, I can mention a very interesting documentary displayed by BBC. I watched it with great pleasure as they talked about a song in the area of Balkans and they tried to find the origin of this song so they went to Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia, Croatia and they found out that this song was sang in all Balkan countries. But they didn’t know as each of the countries thought that it was their song. And everybody claimed that it was their own song, but which was stolen by others.

-That’s great, really. I thank you so much for this interesting interview. And I really hope cooperation between Tirana and Belgrade to further progress.

-I hope that very soon, we are going to visit Tirana with one of our theater plays. This play will be as an opening of our future cooperation at the same way as we did with other capitals.We have a new play on the occasion of 400th anniversary from the death of Shakespeare, Hamlet. The director is from Macedonia and this is an opportunity to display it in Tirana too.