Ceku visits Macedonia to discuss border, business co-operation

10/05/2006

Friday's meeting between the prime ministers of Kosovo and Macedonia focused on border demarcation, with both sides anxious to quell a diplomatic flare-up over the issue last month.

By Marina Stojanovska for Southeast European Times in Skopje – 10/05/06

Macedonia's Vlado Buckovski (left) shakes hands with visiting Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku in the government building in Skopje on Friday (5 May). [Getty Images]

The prime ministers of Kosovo and Macedonia, Agim Ceku and Vlado Buckovski, met in Skopje on Friday (5 May) -- the first time a prime minister from the UN-administered province has been received in the Macedonian government building. During his visit, Ceku also met with opposition leaders and attended a business seminar on co-operation.

Both Buckovski and Ceku appeared anxious to stem a diplomatic quarrel that flared following Ceku's comment in April that a border agreement signed by Serbia-Montenegro and Macedonia in 2001 was not valid. He later seemed to back down from the statement, affirming that the deal would be respected in practice. During their talks Friday, both leaders agreed the issue should be resolved when the time is appropriate.

"It is becoming clear that the demarcation of the border is a technical rather than political issue," Buckovski said. "Amid a clearly expressed willingness on the Kosovo side, we, the politicians, are only left to pose to cameras around a borderstone on the day of demarcation."

The issue will be resolved when a partner with international legitimacy to do so exists on the other side, Buckovski said. "American and Macedonian mapmakers will work on the technicalities," he said.

Ceku struck a similarly positive tone. "We are starting from the principle that there will be no change of the borders, which is also the principle of the Contact Group. For us, demarcation is a technical issue we will solve in the spirit of good friendship when time is adequate," Ceku said.

During the visit, he also met with leaders of opposition and ethnic Albanian parties. Vesna Janevska of the VMRO-Narodna said that the opposition is satisfied with Kosovo's stance regarding inviolability of the borders in the Balkans.

"It is good that Macedonia and Kosovo have established normal relations and want to solve the problems in a civilised manner," Vice President of the Albanian Democratic Party (DPA) Menduh Taci said.

A business forum was also held during the visit. The Kosovo delegation arrived via the recently re-established Pristina-Skopje railway line. Macedonian Minister of Economy Fatmir Besimi said construction of a highway between Skopje and Pristina will begin soon, and Kosovo Trade Minister Bujar Dugoli announced the opening of a new Gnjilane-Kumanovo railway line.