In the fall of 2021, Serbia's new ambassador, Slobodan Vukcevic, replaced the long-serving diplomat Miroljub Zaric, who had held the position of Serbian Ambassador to Tirana for more than two decades. Ambassador Vukcevic arrived in the Albanian capital with extensive experience in Serbia's Foreign Ministry, where he had undertaken numerous important assignments.

In this interview with Ambassador Vukcevic, we address key issues involving Kosovo and the Albanian-inhabited Presevo Valley, as well as bilateral relations between Albania and Serbia and regional initiatives involving both countries.

According to Ambassador Vukcevic, bilateral relations between Serbia and Albania have significantly improved since the political changes in the Republic of Serbia in 2014. He also emphasizes that the Open Balkan initiative and the Berlin Process are not competitive, as some politicians have claimed, but rather compatible, working in parallel with the same overarching goals.

Read below the interview with Serbian Ambassador to Tirana, Slobodan Vukcevic.

- Mr. Ambassador Vukcevic, thank you for this opportunity. My first question concerns your reflections after three years as Serbia’s highest representative in Tirana: What did you know about Albania before your assignment, and what are your impressions of our country?

Ambassador Slobodan Vukcevic: At the beginning, let me thank you for the opportunity to express, to your readers, our views in your respectful newspaper, which is my daily source of information since the day one of my posting in Tirana.

My knowledge of Albania prior to arrival as ambassador to Albania, was limited to political and economic perspective of your country based upon our embassy’s reports and news from the sources accessible via Internet. The moment I entered to Albania, image and impression shaped prior to my arrival, started to change. Hospitality of the people, together with the food and the landscape positively changed my previously shaped image.

Preconceptions that are still part of public opinion on both sides, about each other, started to fade away.

Pace of development particularly of the Albania’s capital, is impressing. Construction of new roads around the country is commendable and highly necessary as one of the solutions of the constant traffic jams.

-I would like your thoughts on the duality of the Berlin Process and the Open Balkans (well-known initiatives that include both Albania and Serbia) focusing on regional cooperation and European integration, which have had differing outcomes.

-Open Balkan initiative, previously Mini-Schengen, was the initiative established by our leaders, president Vucic and prime ministers Rama and Zaev in Novi Sad in 2019, an initiative tailor made for our region’s needs. It was the only initiative that originated within the region itself with an aim to promote 4 European liberties; freedom of movement for persons, goods, services and capital. The idea was to better connect our countries as if we were members of the common EU market, in order to boost the trade, travel, cultural and every other aspect of cooperation between ourselves. The idea was to simulate single European market in order to be better prepared for the future full membership in the European Union.

Open Balkan and Berlin Process are not competitive initiatives, as some local politicians claimed, but compatible, that goes hand in hand and with the same aim.

How productive Open Balkan was, proves the number of documents signed, starting from 2019 until 2022; in particular 3 Joint Declarations, 8 trilateral agreements, 3 bilateral agreements, 8 memorandums and 3 protocols.

One of the most prominent results of the Open Balkan initiative is the Wine Vision by Open Balkan, already respectful wine fare in Europe, even though only with three editions so far.

WV by OB was already, in 2024, a success story with more than 640 exhibitors from numerous wineries, distilleries and gastronomic companies from 38 countries including Albania.

At the same time, parallel to the Wine fair, the Food Vision by Open Balkan, was organized in cooperation with Junior Chef Club.

-Kosovo is undoubtedly the issue on which Albania and Serbia "agree to disagree." With the dialogue process seemingly restarting and the EU appointing a new special representative, what would Serbia consider a positive outcome from this dialogue? Noting, of course, that Brussels has tied Serbia’s progress in European integration to this issue.

- Yes, you are absolutely right about difference in our perspective vis-à-vis Kosovo and Metohija.

My government is of an opinion that only dialogue between our negotiating team, representatives of Pristina authorities, fasilitated by the representative of the EU, is the right way to deal with the issue in hand. In particular, fulfilment of the Brussel Agreement (2013) which stipulates obligation for Pristina to establish Association of Serbian Municipalities, which has been avoided ever since. It is conditio sine qua non for the exit from the dead-end street, where we were pointed by Kurti’s policy of unilateral decisions that led to the stalemate. Different tricks have been used by the ruling administration with an aim to make life more difficult for the Serbs. The price was paid by the Serb families (20% of them) that departed in the last several years due to the difficult life conditions, humiliation and other hardships imposed by Kurti’s regime. Shutting down of postal service offices, prohibition of the use of Serbian Dinar as a currency, closing down of the different offices including one for the social care etc. all of which has been done violently, in the presence of the heavily armed persons. How far this maltreatment by the Kurti’s regime went so far shows the latest developments in respect of the election process. Illegal closure of the 32 institutions financed by the Government of the Republic of Serbia, led to several thousands of persons losing their jobs together with 40,000 persons losing their social benefits which were all part of the election campaign, primarily targeting Serb population living in Kosovo and Metohija. There were not isolated acts but systematic pattern of undermining collective rights and identity of the Serb population with an aim to send a clear message that they are not welcomed and that they have no right to exist in Kosovo and Metohija.

After the failed attempt to prevent Serb List, the dominant party of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, to participate in the election process, Kurti’s regime took many additional steps to worsen the exiting atmosphere of fear and insecurity. Imposing such repressive measures does not comply with either the pledge of constructive conduct in the Dialogue process nor with the EU’s basic values and principles.

We expect from the new EU special representative to respect legally binding documents and to be impartial in his work.

-My next question pertains to the Albanians in the Presevo Valley. Albanian representatives there accuse Serbia of passivizing the addresses of Valley residents, a concern to which the Foreign Ministry in Tirana has reacted with a statement last November. What is your position on this issue?

-In Pcinja County, which has an administrative centre in the city of Vranje (aka Presevo Valley), there are two municipalities, Bujanovac and Preševo, which has ethnic Albanians as a majority population. In total, in accordance with the 2022 Census, there are 61,687 citizens of Albanian origin living in Republic of Serbia, 56,834 of them in the Pcinja County. Most of them live in Presevo (31,340) and Bujanovac (25,465) municipalities. Unfortunately, the 2011 Census was boycotted by Albanian minority, therefore there is no comparable statistics between the two (2011 and 2022).

The passivization of addresses is administrative process conducted by the Ministry of the Interior initiated by the authorized entity with a legal/lawful public or private interest. I am aware of the fact that there were number of address passivization cases that involved ethnic Albanians in the municipalities of Presevo and Bujanovac. On one hand, I am not in possession of any official information, apart from numerous news reports and statements by local Albanian politicians which allegedly accused the state’s misuse of its prerogatives to the detriment of Albanian minority. On the other hand, I am aware of the fact that significant number of citizens residing in the said municipalities, emigrated to the western countries and possibly were out of reach to the local police officers when they were searched for some reasons not particularly known to me.

As far as the Ministry for Europe and Foreign affairs statement concerning Albanian minority in Serbia is concerned, I can inform you that it was duly noted.

-Your Excellency, how would you define the current state of Albania-Serbia relations on both state and human levels? I refer to the new trajectory of relations over the past decade, marked by the cooperation between Prime Minister Rama and President Vucic, as well as the closer contacts between our peoples, including the growing presence of Serbian tourists in Albania.

-Bilateral relations between Serbia and Albania have greatly improved as a result of change of government of the Republic of Serbia in 2014. Relations with neighboring countries gained a new boost and new perspective with, at that time, PM Aleksandar Vucic who made an excellent judgment promoting Republic of Serbia as a leader of good relations with our neighboring countries that include Republic of Albania. Differences of the past has been left behind and new path has been chosen for the benefit of the peoples of Serbia and Albania as well as the region of the WB as a whole. The bilateral visit of the PM Rama to Belgrade, marked new beginning, after 68 years of pause, of the pragmatic relations focused on our political and economic relations.

At the press conference, PM Vucic stated that: “I know that in Serbia and Albania it is easy to inflame ethnic tensions because that wins political points. But I have not been chosen to make easy decisions, but to take care of the future of Serbia.”

As a consequence, we are witnessing rise of the trade level between Serbia and Albania which was approximately 370 million euros in 2024. Number of tourists from Serbia visiting your seaside resorts and cities has risen exponentially in comparison to decade ago. We would like to host more Albanian tourist in our attractive tourist resorts in Spas and mountains together with city brake vacations that are dominant in Belgrade and Novi Sad. EXIT music festival in Novi Sad was a magnet for youngsters from the whole of Europe, and I know that there were also Albanian visitors that enjoyed good music and atmosphere in the castle above the Danube River.

-In your opinion, which areas still hold untapped potential for further development of bilateral relations?

-Dear Mr. Koçiko, I thank you for this question. One of the major tasks of being ambassador is how to develop and how to improve bilateral relations with the country of accreditation. Theoretically, there is always room for the improvement, only what matters is a political will and an objective to do it. My opinion is that there is the will and the way to do it. In particular, I see room for cooperation in the field of agriculture, and our know-how of using IT in order to reduce the cost and to increase the quantity and quality of the crops.

Cooperation in cyber security and security in general and in particular control of illegal immigration is the constant need between the Balkan countries. We can find a lot of examples that criminal organizations have excellent cooperation when they have a matching interest. This example should be a reason why our police and security services should cooperate more closely.

Let me remind you and your readers that we (Serbia’s and Albania’s football federations) jointly applied to organize the UEFA under 21 Championship in 2027, which will be clear example of our excellent cooperation in sport. The decision of the 2027 host country(s) is scheduled for February 2025.

-Finally, in May 2027, Serbia will host the Belgrade Expo, titled ‘Sport and Music for All.' What does this event signify for Serbia, and could you share more details about it?

-Hosting of the Specialized EXPO 2027 in Belgrade was a tough battle between 5 applicants (Belgrade-Serbia, Minnesota-USA, Phuket-Thailand, Malaga-Spain and San Carlos de Bariloche-Argentina) which were fighting for this prestigious exhibition. Belgrade won after the four rounds of votes.

This will be the first ever EXPO organized in the region of the Western Balkans (just to mention that the last specialized EXPO organized in the Balkans was in Plovdiv, in 1991 in Bulgaria).

Hosting of the EXPO, which will commence on 15th of May and will last until 15th of August, will allow Serbia to bring the world's much-deserved positive attention to this region of the Western Balkan. EXPO 2027 Belgrade will make both the host country and the broader region more visible on the world map, bringing numerous benefits to the surrounding countries and economies.

EXPO 2027 Belgrade is an opportunity for the world to see the real potential of our region. It will showcase that Serbia together with other countries in the WB region, are not only keeping up with the latest global trends in infrastructure, tourism, science, technology, artificial intelligence etc., but also that it has the capacity to be the leader in some of these domains.

The EXPO site, which is being built from the scratch, is set to be an innovative and modern exhibition complex that, for three months in 2027, will welcome more than 4 million visitors and possibly over 120 participating countries including Albania. In addition to engaging in the main activities of the EXPO, international participants will also organize cultural programs and events, which will be available to tens of thousands of people every day. We anticipate over 10,000 events throughout the 92-day program, encompassing a wide range of activities.

In these globally challenging times, Serbia’s hope is that EXPO 2027 Belgrade will commence a bright new chapter of history for the entire region of the WB marked by harmony, friendship, and celebration./ADN