The presidents of Albania and Kosovo on Sunday attended a ceremony to mark the completion of the first highway connecting their two territories, according to dpa. Albanian President Sali Berisha and his Kosovar colleague Hashim Thaci celebrated the new roadway at the central tunnel in the city of Kalimash on the border area between southern Kosovo and northern Albania. The 5.6 kilometre tunnel is at the heart of the 170-kilometre highway between the Albanian city of Durres and Morina in the mostly ethnic Albanian dominated former Serbian province of Kosovo. At a cost of 1 billion euros (1.4 billion dollars), the highway took three years to build and shortens the driving time between the two end destinations from seven to less than three hours. "This is the tunnel of the reunification of our nation," Berisha said. "Although we have been divided over centuries, today we are closer than ever," said Thaci. "We were divided by history and injustice, but today is that all gone!" The new highway is expected to deepen the already close political and economic contacts between Albania and Kosovo.
