American Ambassador Hill repeats the message: I am a big supporter of Open Balkan

The American ambassador in Belgrade, Christopher Hill, said that he continues to be a big supporter of the Open Balkans regional initiative.

He emphasized that Open Balkan aims for the six countries of the Western Balkans to join this initiative to open the borders, as he said, for the trade of goods and for the movement of tourists.

Whereas, only Kosovo continues to be against this regional initiative.

"We have noticed that we need those borders to be borders, not to divide countries, but rather countries that unite countries. There have been a number of efforts for regional integration, one of which is here in the Balkans, which Minister Momirovic mentioned, and I will mention it again, because I am a big supporter of this initiative, Open Balkan, which tries to invite all countries, and this six of the Western Balkans, to unite. It requires ensuring that regardless of their status, countries come together, work together and act to open borders, and to ensure that those borders facilitate the trade of goods and services, as well as the movement of tourists," he stressed. .

Ambassador Hill has also shown the impressions of Albania's senior officials about the integration in the Open Balkans. The American ambassador made these comments on Tuesday in a joint event with the Minister of Trade in Serbia, Tomislav Momirovic.

Meanwhile, even in the Government of Serbia, they say that they have seen the benefits of integration in the Open Balkans.

The Minister of Trade in Serbia, Tomislav Momirović, said that after the EU, the CEFTA countries are traditionally the second most important foreign trade partner of Serbia.

According to him, the total exchange of goods with the CEFTA countries in the previous year was 7 billion euros, while exports reached nearly 5 billion euros and imports about 2 billion euros.

Otherwise, the prime minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, continues to be against this regional initiative for the Open Balkans.

The last meeting for the Open Balkans between the president of Albania, Edi Rama, the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, and the prime minister of North Macedonia, Dimitar Kovacevski, was in Italy on April 2.