Albanian and Kosovo prime ministers inaugurate highway

Prime Ministers of Albania and Kosovo today have officially launched the tunnel linking Kosovo and Albania. The tunnel is 5.5 km in length and goes under the high rocky mountains of Albania which were usually passed with an average of 8 hours of driving. This tunnel makes shortens the journey from 8 hours to a dozen of minutes. The highway starting from the Adriatic Coast and up to the Kosovo border is also the gateway of Kosovo to the sea and it is expected that it will boost Kosovo’s economy and indirectly also attract investors.

The prime ministers of Albania and Kosovo inaugurated Sunday the first highway link through northern Albania's rugged mountains, nearly two decades after the fall of communism in Albania.

Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha met his counterpart from Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, at the last tunnel dug along the 164-mile (265-kilometer) road.

The last meters of the tunnel were opened by the Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha who tore down the symbolic wall standing in the middle of the tunnel. After opening the tunnel met with the Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci who was waiting on the other side.

The meeting was seen as a step toward stronger ties between ethnic Albanians on both sides of the border.

Several thousand people marked the event by dancing to traditional music and waving Albanian, Kosovan and American flags.

"Today we have decided that there are no mountains, no obstacles, there is nothing that spiritually or physically stops this nation," Berisha told the crowd. (etaiwannews, Albanian Times)