Democrat MP and former Foreign Minister Tritan Shehu has rejected as untrue Albanian Premier Edi Rama’s claims that the United States backs strongly the Open Balkans initiative of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic with the support of Rama and North Macedonian Premier Zaev.

Shehu said there is nothing about the Open Balkans in the official statement of the US Embassy to Albania.

“The Prime Minister declared after a meeting with a delegation from the US Department of State that the United States backs strongly the Open Balkans project, putting it at the center of attention in his statement”, wrote Shehu.

“I was just reading the official communication from the US Embassy regarding that meeting. There’s no mentioning of the Open Balkans, only of other priority matters like the US-Albanian bilateral relations. It is written about the (EU) integration, the region, energy, but not about Vucic’s initiative”.

“Could this be a debunk of what the Prime Minister said on behalf of the high US delegation?”