Kosovo asks Albania to use its Port of Shëngjin

The Kosovar Prime Minister, Hashim Thaçi has asked his Albanian counterpart Sali Berisha to bring to life the agreement that would give the northern Albanian Port of Shëngjin for Kosovo to use.

According to Thaçi, the concretization of this agreement will bring multilevel development.

“I am in very close contact with Prime Minister Berisha and as far as the agreement for the port of Shengjin is concerned, I want to believe that we will very soon sign an agreement between the Government of Albania and the Government of Kosovo,” Prime Minister Thaçi said during the regular session of the government.

According to him the materialization of this offer through a formal agreement would give Kosovo a greater economic impetus.

“Access to Kosovo through this port will have benefits for Kosovo, the Albanian state and the entire region. We consider that the rapid formalization of this agreement would be an extraordinary contribution to the realization of our development goals,” Thaçi said.

The Albanian government plans to build a second highway that will link Shëngjin with the town of Gjakova in central-western Kosovo in the west-east direction. The new route would give Kosovo access to the sea just 100 kilometers (60 miles) away. A Turkish-American consortium is already constructing the highway that will connect the central Albanian port of Durrës with Kukës and beyond to the capital of Kosovo, Prishtina.