Tirana, June 9 / ATA/ The US General Daniel Hokanson, Chief of the National Guard Bureau and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States, says that the deviation from efforts for peace and stability in the Balkan region is something that everyone should be concerned about. General Hokanson made his comments on the recent developments in Kosovo during an interview in Tirana with the Voice of America broadcast, where he spoke about the relations in the military field with Albania, which he described as excellent.
General Hokanson started off speaking about the visit to Albania.
“My visit here aims to strengthen our excellent bilateral relations. As Commander of the National Guard, we have had a long-term relationship between the New Jersey National Guard and the Albanian military. In fact, when you look at the support we get from Albania as the United States and as NATO, it’s a great opportunity to come here and thank you, your country for many of the things you’ve done. Also, it is an opportunity to visit your beautiful country. So, every chance I get, it’s good to do this in person and mention to your leaders how important Albania is to the United States,” he said.
Going back to 1995, when New Jersey first began training with Albania, then formalized under our State Partnership Program in 2001, since then we have conducted 500 training exchanges that have been extremely beneficial for both parties. And when we look back at that time, since 2001, Albania has moved forward becoming an ally in NATO in 2009 and is now an important supporter, not only in everything that is happening in the region, but also in the world. Especially the support you have given to Ukraine together with the United States. Also, our opportunities to work together on Defender 21, Defender 23, and now we look forward to Defender 25.
Doing these exercises together, we train, learn to work side by side with each other. And I think that this makes both our armed forces and our NATO allies much stronger.
In reply to the question how much the still fragile balances in the Balkans are risked, General Hokanson said:
When we see the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the disaster they are causing – the humanitarian disaster – we look to Albania and its strong support from the beginning. I think all of us, our armies, we are there to protect the sovereignty of our nation, to protect our citizens. I think the resistance together, especially as we have seen with Albania, to say that we do not agree with this aggression and we will stand up against it. The support we are giving to Ukraine, I think, sets a very good example, that we stand up for the sovereignty of nations and the protection of their territorial borders and the protection of their citizens.
In reply to the question about recent developments in Kosovo, where the US has a military presence within KFOR? The United States decided to exclude Kosovo from Defender 23, and you were in Serbia in those days, as Ambassador Hill told the Voice of America in an interview…
General Hokanson said that at any time, there is a concern about violence, we are very concerned about that. Of course, our priority is peace and stability in the region, and from all the data it seems that everything is normalizing. I know there is ongoing dialogue. I think it is very important for all leaders to be transparent in their conversations. In fact, we want to focus on peace and stability in the region so that our citizens can move forward and our countries can prosper. And anything that deviates from that is something we should all be concerned about.
But it seems to me that the leaders are talking and we have seen a de-escalation and hopefully we can continue that. /VOA/sm/
