Albania’s prime minister ends Serbia trip with visit to ethnic Albanian-dominated south

Edi Rama said Tuesday the two countries need to overcome a troubled past and work toward EU membership.

Relations between Albania and Serbia hit a low during the 1998-99 Kosovo war. Soon after that conflict, ethnic Albanians in Serbia’s Presevo Valley staged an insurgency. The conflict ended in 2001 with a deal granting the ethnic Albanian minority more rights.

Rama’s visit, the first by an Albanian official in 68 years, was underlined with tensions as he remarked that Serbia has to come to terms with losing its former province.

Kosovo’s 2008 secession is fiercely rejected by Serbia.