Zyra e Kryeministrit

Prime Minister Kurti was received at the meeting by the Prime Minister of Greece, Mitsotakis

August 22, 2023

Athens, 22 August 2023

In Athens, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, was received by the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Maximos palace, with whom he had a bilateral meeting.

Initially, Prime Minister Kurti congratulated his Greek counterpart, Mitsotakis, on his re-election as prime minister and the new government mandate, offering close cooperation on topics of common interest.

The Prime Minister said that Kosovo and Greece enjoy good relations which are constantly improving both on the economic level through the increase of commercial exchanges and on the political level through frequent visits of the institutional heads of both states.

He thanked Prime Minister Mitsotakis for the invitation and for last night’s dinner in which the leaders of the Western Balkans were present as well as the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenkovic, Prime Minister of Romania Marcel Ciolacu, Prime Minister of Bulgaria Nikolai Denkov, and President of Moldova, Maia Sandu.

They also talked about dialogue in Brussels and regional cooperation. Prime Minister Kurti said that we already have an agreement, but it needs to be fully implemented and without conditions.

He recalled that after the Bratislava agreement, it has been two months without any incident or violent protest in the four municipalities in the north of Kosovo. So we have a de-escalated situation where the focus should be on preventing re-escalation by violent elements.

The meeting was dominated by the discussion on strengthening economic relations. Prime Minister Mitsotakis thanked Prime Minister Kurti for attending the dinner and said that he is interested in strengthening economic ties as he expressed interest in various sectors of the economy.

The Prime Minister singled out the economic growth for the first quarter of this year, which stands at 3.9% and the drop in the inflation rate from 11.9% in January to 2.8% in June, as well as the progress in democracy indicators. He said that with the new energy strategy, the government has pledged that new energy generation will be from renewable sources, ie solar and wind. He mentioned the growing production sectors of the economy such as metal and wood processing, textiles, food and beverages as well as the services and information technology sectors.

Prime Minister Kurti invited Prime Minister Mitsotakis for a visit and for more investments in Kosovo. The trade exchange with Greece last year was 308 million euros, an increase of over 40% or close to 100 million euros compared to 2021.

While expressing his regret for the fires that have engulfed a part of Greece, the Prime Minister offered the assistance of the Republic of Kosovo in dealing with the fires through the search and rescue units of the Kosovo Security Forces.

Last modified: August 22, 2023

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