"It's piece of cake compared to what Belgrade has to swallow"

"It's piece of cake compared to what Belgrade has to swallow"

However, he adds that "the day when Serbia will recognize Kosovo is far away".

The compromises that Pristina has to make, no matter how painful they are for them, are "piece of cake" compared to what Belgrade has to accept in the dialogue, said the Albanian Prime Minister.

Albanian Prime Minister said that after the meeting in Ohrid, he sees light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.

"There is that light and every step forward is a step towards it, and we have passed centuries and decades when every step forward was a step into darkness," Rama said in an interview with the Political Debate Club (KDP), a Macedonian portal in the Albanian language.

Rama says that "the Community of Serbian Municipalities is an agreement that was signed and that it has special importance, because it is about the maximum that Pristina can offer to Belgrade and the Serbian community in Kosovo and Metohija".

When asked what he thinks about Albin Kurti's loud opposition to the establishment of CSM, Rama says that "the transition from the poetics of the opposition to the prose of the government is painful." "That transition is not easy, especially when the poetry is very fierce, then the transition is more difficult, but it is something that happens to everyone," said Rama.

According to him, relations in the Balkans have never been better, even the relations between Belgrade and Pristina. "Today we have a process of normalization of relations with the help of the European Union and the USA, which gave very significant and interesting signals regarding the possibility of the end of the conflict and the beginning of a new era," the Albanian Prime Minister said.

Rama says that the relations between Belgrade and Pristina have already improved, because "until yesterday, who would have thought that Albin Kurti could sit down with the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić".

If we want Serbia to one day apologize to Kosovo, we have to reconcile, said the Albanian Prime Minister.

"Forgiving is not so easy, it is a process. So we have to make peace. And working for peace is much more difficult... There are some who say that peace is much more difficult than war. I did not go to war, I prefer peace. Of course, war is the last resort," said Rama.

Prime Minister of Albania claims that the Balkans is the region where Russia has the greatest influence on the European continent.

Speaking about the pressure on Serbia to impose sanctions on Russia, Rama said that Serbia should not be pressured because of this. "Serbia cannot do that either politically or technically. Serbia is finished without Russian gas. It is not Germany that can wait and have the chancellor open another platform for liquid petroleum gas in it every other Saturday, through which they will purchase far more expensive gas from Qatar and other countries," Rama said, as reported by Sputnik.

According to him, the interest of the West and the Albanians is for Serbia to align itself with the EU and the USA, and not to isolate itself. "What is our interest? For Serbia to be isolated, for Serbia to turn into a destructive force, or for Serbia to integrate with all the difficulties, with all the obstacles, with all its struggles? I say the latter is more important. The most important thing for the future of our children in this region is to convey to them the passion not to fight against each other," said Rama.

Speaking about the trial of former KLA leaders, he said that "it is a terrible fact that Hashim Thaci was taken to The Hague without charges, while he was the head of state."

"No other country would accept that, never. And no one in any other country would dare to imprison the president and tell him - 'come on, go to jail here while we formulate the indictment'. Now the trial has begun. This is a process that will be difficult and long. But I believe that in the end this process will not succeed in criminalizing the struggle for the freedom of Kosovo. In the meantime, we will do our best not to influence the process, because we cannot influence it, but we will do our best to lighten the load of mud thrown at the KLA through Dick Marty's hallucinatory report which, unfortunately, turned into an official report of the Council of Europe," said Rama.

He also said that for him the issue of the KLA and Hashim Thaci is of great importance for the nation and not only for Kosovo, but for the Albanian people in general.