Members of the Collegiums of both Houses of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly met with the Albanian Foreign Minister

Safet Softić, the Speaker of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH PA) and Šefik Džaferović, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives of BiH PA, met today in Sarajevo with Ditmir Bushati, the Foreign Affairs Minister of the Republic of Albania, and discussed the possibilities of improving political and economic relations between the two countries.

Emphasizing the fact that there are no open political issues between Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina and that bilateral relations between the two countries are at the highest level, Minister Bushati said that Albania, as a member of NATO and a country with candidate status for the European Union accession, strongly supports all progress of Bosnia and Herzegovina and other countries in the region on their European and Euro-Atlantic path.

Considering the visit of Minister Bushati and the forthcoming visit of Ilir Meta, the Speaker of the Albanian Parliament, to Sarajevo to be important steps toward the improvement of political and economic relations between the two friendly countries, members of the Collegiums of BiH PA welcomed the Albanian efforts to establish partnership relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina and other Western Balkan countries in terms of project implementations of the Berlin process and regional Adriatic - Ionian initiative.

In this regard, the implementation of strategic projects such as the construction of the Adriatic - Ionian highway was discussed at the meeting, which would complete the economic and tourist offer of the region, as well as the Adriatic gas pipeline, whose construction would stimulate the development of the energy sector in the region.

Members of the Collegiums of both Houses informed the Albanian head of diplomacy that the BiH PA House of Peoples may soon ratify the Agreement on the liberalization of visa regime between the BiH Council of Ministers and the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Albania, which would make the process of ratification of this Treaty complete, and the citizens of the two countries would be allowed to cross borders with identity cards. (End)