Trump's ex-envoy condemns 'prime minister' of Kosovo separatists
Former representative of the administration of ex-US President Donald Trump on the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Richard Grenell, arrived in Albania to promote American investment in the Balkans.
Reporteri reports this, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
Richard Grenell came to the Balkans to, in his words, promote foreign investment and economic cooperation in the region as the only way to guarantee the well-being of all its inhabitants, and especially to provide more job opportunities for the younger generation.
The first country visited by Trump's ex-envoy was Albania, where he met with the country's Prime Minister Edi Rama, whom he called a "visionary" for promoting the ex-US President's idea of integrating the Balkans within the framework of mini-Schengen, which has recently received name "Open Balkans".
Richard Grenell and Edi Rama
“I think Kurti should be involved in the broader Balkan dialogue, and he is not doing that. “It’s a big mistake,” Grenell said. “The people of Kosovo deserve good jobs, but without participating in this discussion they will not be able to participate in the normalization of economic relations in the Balkans or in the negotiations.”
Grenell also said that, in fact, he is continuing Trump’s initiative in the Balkans, but at a different level:
“President Trump's vision for dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia was about creating jobs, about the economy, and the idea was that the Balkan region would prosper.
We've been talking about politics for decades, but there hasn't been much progress since we just sat at tables and just talked about politics. Therefore, we decided to continue the process, but not speaking about economic development, about youth employment.
"Here (at the Open Balkans summit in Skopje – ed.), we recently saw that the agreement on normalizing economic relations, made possible by the Trump administration, was very fruitful. I want to see these ideas develop, which is why I'm here, even though I no longer work for the government, I'm in the private sector, and we're looking for opportunities to create a favorable climate for foreign investment in the Balkans," added Richard Grenell.
Former Trump envoy condemns Kosovo separatist "prime minister"