Minister Hoxha responds to Serbian counterpart: Rivers cannot be used for threats. Our phone lines are open
2026-08-11 11:14:31PolitikëSHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Hoxha and Djuric
Albanian Foreign Minister Ferit Hoxha has responded to his Serbian counterpart, Marko Djuric, regarding Vucic's statement that Serbia could divert the flow of the Ibar River.
Hoxha states that the rivers flowing in the Balkans contain water and should not be used for threats. According to him, Tirana would react, even if Serbia were harmed. Minister Hoxha declares that the common future of the region is in the EU.
Post by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Albania, Ferit Hoxha
I appreciate the calmer closing reasoning in Marko Djuric's message, because that is where the future of our region lies: not in threats and accusations, but in dialogue, trust, and practical cooperation. And that brings us back to where this exchange between us began: Water.
Water is life. It doesn't carry a passport, read political maps, or stop to ask which side of the border it's flowing from. Turning it into an instrument of punishment is not simply someone else's job.
So, yes, the Ibar River does not flow through Albania. But if tomorrow someone threatened to cut off Serbia's water flowing through its territory, Albania would be just as vocal. Not because that water would somehow end up in Albania, but because such a threat would poison the peaceful coexistence of this region we share.
That's what neighbors are for, right? Not to calculate whether water reaches their tap before deciding whether they care about it as an issue, but to care before such calculations come to define the space in which we live.
So maybe we can leave the hydrology here and agree on something simpler. Rivers should carry water, not threats, and borders should define jurisdictions, not divide our responsibility for peace.
And as for all the “Greater” things mentioned in this discussion, Albania remains interested in only one: a Greater European Union, which includes Kosovo, Serbia, Albania, and the rest of our region.
Our doors and phone lines are also open, as are our minds, when it comes to building more concrete examples of what Albanians and Serbs can achieve together.
So let's move on with more Europe, less mythology, and more reasons to see our past through the eyes of the future, instead of seeing our future through the eyes of the past.
And yes, water for all. To drink in peace and to irrigate equally peacefully the fertile lands of our shared and beautiful neighborhood.
