President of the Republic of Kosovo, Mrs. Atifete Jahjaga, is currently on an official state visit to the Republic of Austria, by invitation of the President of Austria, Dr. Heinz Fischer. She was received with the highest stately ceremony and today had meetings with the President Fischer and Speaker of the Parliament of Austria, Ms. Barbara Prammer.
At the meetings, the development and advancement of relations between Republic of Kosovo and Republic of Austria was one of the issues the interlocutors’ disscussed, as well as developments in the region, with special emphasis on the European integrations agenda of the Republic of Kosovo.
The officials of the Republic of Austria gave their full support to the processes through which the Republic of Kosovo is going through and greeted the achievement in Brussels of the agreement by two Prime Ministers on normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, classifying it as the only way towards finding of solutions for all issues.
President Fischer, in honour of President Jahjaga and the Kosovar delegation, organised a working lunch.
During her visit to Austria, President Jahjaga held a media conference, where she stated the importance of the support provided by Austria towards strengthening of the international subjectivity of Kosovo, advancement of the democratic processes in the country as well as policies for the rule of law and order.
Following is the statement made by President Jahjaga at the media conference:
With the invitation of the Honourable President of the Republic of Austria, Mr. Heinz Fischer, I embarked on an official and very amicable visit, which I consider to be a very fruitful one as well.
With President Fischer we had a very good discussion, during which we reviewed the issues related to bilateral relations between Republic of Kosovo and Republic of Austria, their advancement in the fields of economy, culture as well as all other fields.
We also exchanged our viewpoints on international relations, with special emphasis on the relations between Republic of Kosovo and Republic of Serbia, on the dialogue process between the two Prime Ministers, Thaçi and Dacic, on the achievement and implementation of the agreements which lead towards full normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia.
With President Fischer we disscussed in particular the further strengthening of the international subjectivity of the Republic of Kosovo and for the path and the specific process of the membership of Kosovo into European Union.
We emphasized that membership of Kosovo in all forums, initiatives and international and regional organisations is of great importance, as only in this manner our country may provide the expected contribution towards advancement of all regional and global processes.
I thanked President Fischer for the continuous support that he personally, as well as the state of Austria, has continuously provided for my country and expressed my dedication towards maintenance of the fact that Republic of Kosovo, an already accepted reality, is a factor of peace and stability, is a democratic country built upon civil principles, in which rights and freedoms of all individuals are respected and where all citizens, regardless of their ethnic and religious background and irrelevant of their numbers, are completely equal and enjoy all the rights and freedoms in conformity with the Constitution and the laws of the Republic of Kosovo.
I assured President Fischer that the future of the Republic of Kosovo lies in development of the democratic processes, economic and political stability and its membership into European Union, as the only alternative for all the countries of Western Balkans.
On this journey, all countries will be able to complete their home-work only though the development of good neighbourly relations and by helping each other during the process.
We emphasized that Croatia’s membership in European Union is a success of both the people and the state of Croatia, but also a success of the EU enlargement policy, which is an incentive for all the rest of the countries of the region, which aspire to become members of the European Union.
I once again expressed my cordial gratitude for the invitation to visit this friendly country and at the same time I extended the invitation to President Fischer to visit Republic of Kosovo in the near future.