TIRANA, July 13 /ATA/ – By Maela Marini/ Prime Minister Edi Rama told a joint press conference in Brussels alongside the NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, that “Albania will continue to play its traditional role in support of regional peace, reconciliation and stability.”
Rama informed that during the bilateral meeting the two shared their opinions about the Madrid summit, which was truly a historic moment for the Trans-Atlantic Alliance, since it came up with important decisions to transform and strengthen NATO to ensure that it preserves peace, prevents conflicts and protects allied countries and values.
Prime Minister Rama said that on the other hand he is proud that the Albanian parliament was among the first parliaments of allied countries to ratify the NATO accession protocols of Finland and Sweden.
“We stand in full solidarity with Ukraine and of course its goes without saying that our support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within the internationally recognized borders is as firm as ever,” said Rama.
The Prime Minister emphasized the importance of continuing the conversation vis- a- vis the situation and the obligations we have in the Western Balkans, to prevent any escalation and prevent any bad influence from becoming a trouble for our region.
“In our capacity as an ally and EU candidate country, we will continue to play our traditional role in supporting regional peace, reconciliation and stability. The new strategic concept that we have just endorsed underscores the strategic importance of the Western Balkans to NATO, we strongly believe that it is very important to engage in a permanent dialogue with all the countries of the Western Balkans, including Serbia, which is not part of NATO, but still is part of our region,” said Rama.
The Prime Minister also informed that he had introduced Stoltenberg to Albania’s ambition to add another important value to the infrastructure and logistics of the Alliance, by putting at the disposal of NATO a state of the art naval base, which will be a place where we will build bearing in mind the challenges of our time from climate change to environmental protection and all the rest.
“It is always a pleasure to come back here and it always helps to go back with full energy and continue to serve this holy Alliance,” said Rama.
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