Albania hopes Serbian poll result heralds new era of relations

Albanian Foreign Minister Paskal Milo has said that he hopes the election of Milan Milutinovic to the post of Serbian president will lead to an improvement in relations between Yugoslavia and Albania.

"We think that the official confirmation of the presidential elections in Serbia will lead towards a political thaw of the situation in Yugoslavia and that this constitutes a very important element for this country henceforth to abolish the fevered mentality of conflict," Milo said, in comments broadcast by Albanian TV on Monday evening.

He said the result may mean that Belgrade will develop a more positive policy towards the ethnic Albanians living in the Serbian province of Kosovo.

"Welcoming the election result, we simultaneously think that the process that has just ended in Yugoslavia will create possibilities for the country's institutions and political life to be further democratized, which will create new and favourable circumstances for Belgrade policy to assume, henceforth, more serious commitments towards the fulfilment of international obligations regarding the outer wall of sanctions and allow the country, with the new situations that are being developed there, to create other possibilities for respecting the legitimate rights of Albanians," Milo said.

He called on Milutinovic and the Serbs to uphold agreements signed by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova at the Balkan summit held in Crete last month.

"First of all, they should respect the agreement signed between Milosevic and Rugova on education and, above all, be able to manage to make a reality of the tendencies towards the Europeanization of this country as manifested at the Crete meeting." "On this occasion, we would like to express the opinion of the Albanian government that the commitments and obligations that belong to the Yugoslav state after these elections, in accordance with what I have just mentioned, will effect a further improvement in relations between our two countries," the foreign minister added.

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