Posted on 06/05/2002 10:55:57 AM PDT by Spar
Albania and Kosovo want to build connecting highway
Wed Jun 5, 8:49 AM ET
By MERITA DHIMGJOKA, Associated Press Writer
TIRANA, Albania - Albania and Kosovo would like to build a connecting highway to boost economic and political relations, Prime Minister Pandeli Majko said Wednesday.
"It would be ironic for Albanians in Albania and Kosovo to wish to be integrated into Europe, before they are integrated in the region," Majko told a joint news conference with Bajram Rexhepi, the prime minister of Kosovo.
The planned 200-kilometer (120-mile) highway would link Albania's Western port of Durres, the northern town of Kukes, at the border with Kosovo, and Kosovo's capital, Pristina.
The highway would give Kosovo access to the Adriatic sea.
Because of the bad state of the existing road, most transport between Kosovo and Albania now goes through neighboring Macedonia.
The project is expected to cost between dlrs 250 and 300 million, a huge sum in one of Europe's poorest regions.
Majko said the World Bank (news - web sites) had promised to help finance the project but gave no details.
In the past, Western governments have been reluctant to support such a project for fear of fueling tensions in a region where some governments, like that of Serbia and Macedonia, fear the creation of a Greater Albania.
The Albanian government denies such aspirations and argues the road would boost the economies of both Albania and Kosovo.
"This project will show that Albanians are a stabilizing factor in the region, and not a destabilizing factor," Rexhepi said.
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