Very interesting summertime exchange between our foreign ministers. Although I was expecting an answer about the #Ibër, we somehow travelled from hydrology to international law, made the obligatory stop at “Greater Albania”, passed through “Kosovo and Metohija”, and eventually arrived at the familiar museum of Serbian historical anxieties.

There is a peculiar piece of political folklore in Belgrade that appears immune to time: whenever Albania speaks about #Kosova, “Greater Albania” must immediately be summoned, as if repetition might one day turn an old ghost into a relevant argument.

It won’t.

Albania has no claim whatsoever on Serbian territory and no need to invent one. Nor do we need a “Greater Albania” to stand with Kosova.

Kosova is a state of its own. The Albanians of Kosova are precisely that: Albanians of Kosova. They have their Republic, their institutions and their right to determine their own future. We will always stand with that right.

Serbia lost Kosova. Repeating that it did not may perhaps turn defeat into victory in the geography of political imagination, but unfortunately maps are less accommodating. The territory of the Republic of #Kosova is not Serbian territory, and the natural resources situated within it are not resources of the Republic of Serbia. Our Serbian friends know this perfectly well, including whenever we sit together around European tables.

So back to the river.

The original issue remains exactly where Albania left it: the #Ibër is a transboundary water system. Serbia is entirely free to manage resources within its jurisdiction. What it cannot reasonably argue is that possible consequences for another country magically stop at the Serbian border.

That, after all, is why international water law exists. Rivers have the inconvenient habit of following geography rather than diplomatic talking points.

The situation of the Serbian community in Kosova has also been invoked. Their rights matter. Their security matters. Their property, language, cultural and religious heritage must be protected. Albania has never had any difficulty saying so, because that is simply what a democratic state owes its citizens.

And here we reach perhaps the most entertaining acrobatic manoeuvre in this exchange: warning Albania against ethnic expansionism while referring, in the very same statement, to the territory of another sovereign state as if it were still Serbian. That is quite a circle to square.

Perhaps it works inside a political bubble in Serbia. Outside it, geometry becomes less forgiving. And yes, I could not agree more that the future of our region must be one where borders progressively lose their power to divide us. Absolutely.

But there is a small prerequisite before borders can become less important: accepting the ones that are already there. The genius of the European project was precisely to separate national belonging from territorial appetite.

The Albanians of Kosova are Albanians of Kosova. Albania will stand with them and with their Republic because we share history, language, families and a future, but above all because a free, democratic and secure Kosova is a legitimate European state and an indispensable part of the stability of our region.

There is nothing clandestine about this position. There never has been. No secret maps. No hidden borders. No “Greater” anything required.

Albania’s position will therefore remain exactly the same in public and in private: we respect Serbia, we want good neighbourly relations with Serbia, and we want the entire region inside Europe - Serbia very much included.

But good neighbourliness cannot mean asking every neighbour of Serbia to move permanently into Serbia’s version of history.

The Balkans have already paid far too much, in blood and in lost time, for that particular accommodation. And meanwhile the #Ibër, blissfully unaware of all our historical cartography,will continue flowing according to geography rather than folklore.

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