Rama: We are severing all ties with Serbia until Kosovo police officers are released

(Patria) - Prime Minister Edi Rama announced that Albania has severed all ties with Serbia until the release of three Kosovo police officers who, he said, were kidnapped by Serbian authorities, because, according to him, without their release, there can be no progress in the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue.

“Serbia is not de-escalating the situation in the north of Kosovo, which is degrading every day,” Rama said.

According to him, without the release of the three Kosovo police officers, there will be no other relations with Serbia, nor can Serbia discuss other issues.

The Albanian Prime Minister emphasized that Serbia's detention of three Kosovo police officers in prison is unacceptable and unjustified.

“As long as the three Kosovo police officers are held in prison in Serbia, there is no possibility of progress in the dialogue or concrete de-escalation without their return home. There can be no normality in Albania-Serbia relations as long as Serbia does not release three police officers who have committed no crime… Holding them in prison for days is unjustified and unacceptable,” Rama said, as reported by Pristina media.

He assessed that the attempt to cover up this state deviation due to holding three foreign police officers in another country's prison without any rights, as well as raising voices due to the arrest of certain individuals from the Serbian minority in the north by Kosovo police forces, are “very disturbing”.

Rama also said that he sent a new letter to the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, to personally and concretely engage in overcoming the situation in the north of Kosovo and continuing the implementation of the Brussels agreement and the Ohrid annex.