BELGRADE - Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama abused his visit to Belgrade for personal promotion and inter-political purposes, Director of Centre for Regionalism NGO Aleksandar Popov stated on Monday.

In reaction to the provocation voiced by the Albanian prime minister who called on Serbia to recognise Kosovo as an independent state in his address to the media after the talks with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, Popov said that Rama in this way attempted to present himself as the man who has guts.

In this way, Rama attempted to strengthen his position in Albania as a man who has the guts to make certain statements and present himself as the patron of all Albanians in the region, Popov told Tanjug.

It is not decent for a guest to lecture the host and tell them what they should do, Popov said.

Popov expressed the belief that Rama could have said what he wanted to say in a far more diplomatic way, by saying that Albania will give its contribution to improvement of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue which would be a completely justified statement.

The meeting between the two prime ministers was previously qualified in the media as a chance for a new beginning, but it will not preserve this attribute because the incident is not a sign of such a good beginning, Popov said.

For now, we have an atmosphere that is not quite promising in terms of normalisation of relations, and everything is up to further developments in the course of Rama's visit to Presevo, southern Serbia, and the likelihood and date of Vucic's visit to Tirana, Popov said.