He was speaking to the press in the western Kosovo town of Pec, where the two governments met to sign a deal to eliminate trade barriers on their border by mid-2019. "Today is the time to set 100 percent tariffs in the north and to have zero tariffs in the south of Kosovo," Rama said. The comments deepened the ire in Belgrade, where Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said that it made "no sense now to hold regional cooperation meetings after what Rama said."
Albania is a key ally of Kosovo, a former Serbian province with an ethnic Albanian majority that has struggled to gain full global recognition of the independence it declared in 2008, a decade after breaking away in a brutal war.
Serbia refuses to recognise Kosovo's independence and has accused the pair of wanting to unite and form a "Greater Albania". Already dismal relations between Kosovo and Serbia took a significant dip last week after Pristina issued the 100-percent tariff, which has reduced the flow goods. Kosovo said the move was in retaliation for Belgrade's efforts to undermine recognition of its statehood and block it from joining international organisations, such as Interpol. The European Union condemned the tariff, while Serbia's president has said it amounts to a de facto trade ban.