PM Rama highlighted the help that Albania gave to the Afghan people in moments of chaos.

Rama also focused on Albania’s efforts in the Security Council, where for the first time in the history of the Security Council, our country raised the issue of possible coordination and cooperation in a more systematic way between the private sector and the public sector  so that to build a humanitarian partnership and alliance.

“The humanitarian needs are much more than 55 billion USD this year and what has been collected is less than 11 billion. The gap is therefore very large and the need for coordination is extraordinary”, he emphasized.

The prime minister also drew attention to the role Albania played during the refugee crisis in Afghanistan.

The prime minister emphasized that Albania received several requests from some of the organizations involved, also from Senator Clinton, but also from others to host these people.

“Yes, we are not among the biggest and richest, but we should open the door to those people because it was a shame to leave them in the hands of the barbarians”, he added.

Focusing on the fund mobilization initiative, Rama said that, “We are modestly doing our part and taking advantage of this opportunity to make the most of being a member of the Security Council, but we are not the United States of America, we are Albania”.

The prime minister emphasized that the aim is to set up a platform where everyone can have access, can be informed and can transparently see who does what and how much is needed to go somewhere and how much is needed to be spent in another place./m.m/p.s./

The government head took to the social media to share a photo of him and President Clinton, holding Albanian national team jersey.

“Happy birthday Mister President,” PM Rama wrote in English.

Clinton visited Albania for first time on July 3-4 this year.

A welcoming ceremony took place on Martyrs of the Nation Boulevard in front of the prime minister’s office attended by cabinet members, lawmakers, members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to Albania, heads of various state institutions, as well as ordinary citizens.

Clinton celebrates his 77th birthday today. Bill Clinton (William Jefferson Clinton) was born on August 19, 1946 in Hope, Arkansas, USA. Bill Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001.

Bill Clinton during his term as president of the strongest state in the world influenced the adoption and implementation of UN decisions on NATO intervention in the Kosovo War in 1999.

/u.sh/

Prime Minister Edi Rama: The most honorable and very dear President Clinton,

Dear friends, honorable guests,

It had never been tougher for him than preparing today’s speech and take the floor here knowing that the floor is about to be taken by the very man whose speeches I’ve read and listened long before entering the daily political life for the incredible refinement of the journey to a better world in the wings of his Ulysses-like passion in search of a peace, prosperity and love among people, with the path being the only the goal of all efforts.

Later on, I not only watched, listened and read what he has said, but I have also studied the way he has uttered them in order to learn not only from the content, but also from his unparalleled art of communication by analyzing the rhythm, underlining the openings, the climaxes and closures, following the pitch of the voice and the use of the hands and, most importantly, admiring what can neither be learned nor told, the fascinating empathy that makes President Clinton one of the most astounding orators the history and the world have ever known.

Being fully aware that my approach to this speech here resembles that of a contemporary artist seeking to re-evoke the fresco of a great Renaissance master, knowing that behind the art of the great there stood God, whereas behind of today’s artist stands most likely faith alone, let me start just like any student does by evoking the basics, starting with President Clinton’s address at his first inauguration as President in January 1993: “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”

It would be blasphemy to quote the Albanian translation of this statement in front of author, with him preaching the power of justice in his farewell speech in January 2001: “keep building bridges, not walls and remember, our best days are still ahead,” with him urging us to persevere to the end of time; from his speech in front of memorial honoring victims of the Oklahoma city terrorist bombing: “ We are here to reaffirm the simple but profound truth that the strongest force on earth is love.  We must teach our children to resolve their conflicts with words, not weapons. We must teach them that before they lash out, they must look inward,” telling us that the path to reconciliation is the only way apart from pain and destruction.

His speech at the memorial honoring President Franklin Delano Roosevelt: “F.D.R. lifted himself and others from the depths of their despair, because he refused to be a prisoner of fear,” cherishing our courage in the face of every barrier.

From the eulogy at the funeral of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin: “Let us teach our children that the God of life is painted by violence and murder, and that the God of love rejoices in peace and reconciliation,” where he eulogizes tolerance over any temptation to revenge.

In support of his candidate, opponent of his comrade in arms during the presidential primary in 2008: “I want all of you who supported me, to support Barack Obama,” teaching us the decency and solidarity on the common front of ideas and this way we can go on quoting hundreds of speeches, with each being more beautiful than the next, but undoubtedly also thanks to the fact that he said what he did and did what he said, President Clinton stole the heart of America and inspired Europe and the whole world with the unique power of his speech.

He preceded his political lookalike Tony Blair and cleared up the path of the third way to European politics, providing a historic contribution not only to America, but to the entire reformist spirit of post-Iron Curtain Europe, where the collapse of the Soviet empire brought to the fore also ideological rust of the European left to which Tony Blair’s new Laborism, and further the new center-left of Gerhard Schröder, opened the path that was closed for many years, lending it the seriousness of the governing alternative and the strength to break the monopoly of the European conservatives.

A widespread criticism based on a huge misunderstanding of the then ruling left in those years is that it was too adaptable to liberal policies, but the truth is that those were the years of a renewed revolution within the European left, which succeeded in returning to the core of the political scene with a radiant power as a critical, yet constructive left; with authority, but not authoritarian; visionary but not fantasist.

It played a fundamental role in the Forward Europe movement over ideological gaps in a world that has lost faith in ideology and it excelled so brightly everywhere, including the right itself in Europe, but also here in the tiny Albania, because it was a genuine third way, not a repeated extension of the first and the second, but a medium of dialectical truths for that world traumatized by the Cold War.

Clinton’s third way approach focuses more on civic responsibility and working recipes rather than on the society’s dividing lines and political partisanship.

For Albania’s centre-left too, emerging from an ideological bunker that was the of the worst of Eastern Communism, the third way was like water in the desert, and I can’t help but tell you, Mr. President, that Albania is today one of the few countries in the region, where a third way party continues to govern for years through reforms others didn’t dare deliver previously and through spectacular election victories.

The bare truth is that without that political revolution within the European left, where the ideological left in the west of Europe saw in Slobodan Milosevic a potential victim of American imperialism and not a cruel executioner of the abused people of Kosovo, the President Clinton would never have found the allies to write the history of the liberation of the Western Balkans from the last dictator. Not only Prime Minister Blair and Chancellor Schröder, but also Italy’s centre-left Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema and France’s Socialist Lionel Jospin, who, together with Spain’s conservative Prime Minister José María Aznar, were the key five that allowed our honorable friend today, to make NATO’s historic decision to deliver on one of the most significant successes of American foreign policy, namely the liberation of Kosovo and ushering a new era in this neighborhood known worldwide as “the powder keg” in the heart of Europe called the Balkans.

Albanians have had the privilege of directly experienced on our own the petrifying power of President Clinton’s speech on the evening of March 24, 1999, when he addressed America and the whole world to announce: “Today I authorize the armed forces of United States to begin a series of airstrikes against Serbian forces, responsible for the brutality in Kosovo”.

That speech, in addition to being just another jewel in the treasury of Clinton’s oratory, is for the history of Kosovo, but also for our region itself, a milestone for the path of the future, as it was for America, President Abraham Lincoln’s speech in 1863 in Gettysburg: “a government of the people, by the people, for the people.” Or just like it was for Great Britain the speech by Prime Minister Churchill on June 4, 1940: “We will fight!”

“Across the Atlantic, we and our allies will do what is necessary. The Kosovo conflict is a defining moment for NATO. The credibility of this Alliance is at stake; whether to stop the violence, or watch the vultures descend to feast on the corps of yet another small country.” His direct references to the two nations involved against their will in a cruel conflict caused by the perverse logic of a dictatorial regime left every Albanian and every Serb perplexed that night.

“I want to speak directly to the people of Kosovo. This war was not of your making, it was waged by others who sought to divide and conquer you. Your cause is right, your cause is just and your cause will prevail. I want to speak directly to the people of Serbia. This is not your war. Your soldiers and civilians are not the targets. Make no mistake. We do not hate you. We fight only when we must and when we fight, we fight to prevail. We will not waver, we will not tire, we will not falter and we will not fail. Peace and freedom will prevail.”

Philosophers have debated over the influence of a country’s climate on its people’s character. Being an Albanian, I would like to believe that the same goes for the names of the countries. After all we are “the land of eagles” and we would be very glad for this to be true. President Clinton’s hometown is called Hope, and it is probably not purely a coincidence that he revived and brought hope to the eagles that were driven out of their homes in Kosovo.

The 42nd President of the United States taught us through the example of his oratory and through the power of his example that being hopeful means you believe that there are only bad regimes and governments, there are never bad peoples. No one knows how our region could have possibly been today if it was not for this gentleman who will take the floor in a moment, but one can dare say that the time that has passed since that historic decision and up to today could have been much bleaker than we can even dare to imagine. Not only for Kosovo and for all Albanians consequently, but also for Serbia and for all Serbs consequently , the two largest nations in the Balkans, whose peoples are scattered beyond their motherlands and are slated to live together forever, choosing to either turn the Balkans into a space of a new life of triumph of peace among themselves or leave it a hostage between the old walls of fear and living with our backs turned on each other, but I think one can dare openly state that half a million Kosovar refugees who, under the fury of Belgrade’s bloodthirsty machinery  came to seek shelter in Albania, might not have been able to return back home. The Belgrade “butcher” himself could have spent his life in power and not behind bars, and the past, before we were to reach right where we are now, could have robbed the nations in the Balkans of their future.

Unquestionably, President Clinton’s direct and personal contribution to our double-headed eagle on the other side of the mountains is of such proportions that it naturally eclipses the Clinton administration’s contribution to Albania, which was precious enough back then when our country was emerging from isolation like nowhere in the communist East, a North Korea in the heart of Europe where freedom came together with unparalleled chaos and mayhem.

President Clinton signed the creation of the Albanian-American Development Foundation and his administration supported Albania not only through various aid programs, but primarily by ushering in the new era of strategic partnership with the U.S., which was formalized with the historic partnership agreement some time ago. He also sent to our country his ambassadors, the passionate William Ryerson, the highly respected Marisa Lino, the late ever-kindly remembered Joseph Limprecht, who dutifully accompanied us up the uphill transition from hell to democracy, but again and again as it was for America, Europe and the whole world of progressives of this planet, President Clinton was a point of reference and inspiration for us Albanians to constantly nurture hope and make it our home.

Dear Mr. President, we in Albania don’t get along easily with each other and, recently, neither do you in America, but I am talking about us. It is difficult for us to come together unless a common enemy forces us to do so and, moreover, we may definitely disagree even on what I just said, but I think that in no other country around the world, including Arkansas, would you find greater consensus than in Albania, yesterday, today and forever.

I am stating this based not only on subjective conviction, but also on objective evidence, that Arkansas has turned and remained a red state since you left the White House, while Albania, I’m happy to tell you, remains loyal and true to the spirit of the Clinton approach.

Mr. President, Albania is undoubtedly the most pro-America nation in the world today, including and even compared to Texas, but you are the most pro-Albanian President we could ever find in America and with the greatest respect for all the presidents of your blessed country, your place in the heart of our nation is where the greatest friend of honor stands.

And now, before I exit like the apprentice making way for the master, I would like to give the floor to some of these guys you see sitting on the steps, who are not here not to serve as décor of this welcoming ceremony, but have been invited here personally for a reason that you will find out once they introduce themselves!

The 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton: Thank you!

I am speechless. I think that if I had a very good judgement, I would say nothing at all. I am really speechless!

So, Prime Minister, ministers and other officials of the government,

Distinguished guests and all the people of Albania who were part of this great day, I would like to thank you for a moment that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

It has been more than 10 years now since my wife as a Secretary of State came here and I was always asking: “How you doing? How is it going?” because I always wanted to come and I feel that even though I am now a private citizen without any public power I can speak on this matter for the American people.

In that regard, two our political parties, our philosophical differences, even our sometimes religious conflicts, we are committed to the freedom, the strength, integrity, and the future of Albania.

I am very grateful for what the Prime Minister said about Kosovo. He knows and many of you know that I and Hillary live in New York, just 30 miles north of New York City that has by far the largest concentration of Albanians in America. I can’t walk down the street without seeing them. In fact it was very funny before I came here. I was walking downtown one day about a week before I left, and I passed two of three great Albanian restaurants in our little town and all these people came out and they started telling me about my schedule here. They knew more about what I was going to do here than I did. A week before I left.

I would also like to thank the Prime Minister for his remarks about my politics and the third way approach Tony Blair and I tried to spread. For me at least it is rooted more in what the purpose of politics is. I am very honoured that my son-in-law is with me here today. The last thing that happened right before we came here was that my daughter Chelsea got our three grandchildren, at least my three grandchildren and his three children, on the phone and we could see them. It reminded me what this was all about.

When I hear so many things being said today in America and around the world, designed solely to divide us, solely to make us afraid of each other, solely to justify otherwise unfair treatment. I saw it happening in Kosovo and in Bosnia all those years ago when I was President, I saw it happening as a boy in my native country with children who were denied the right to go to school with me because of their race. Every time I have seen it in my long, long life, it has never been about the underlined truth, but it has been designed to generate power, domination and control without any accountability for the people pushing the line that some people think they are created by God superior to others.

For all of you in Albania, for all of those serving in the government and the others who are served, for the remarkable youth and the presence of women in this government, for the amazingly young people who spoke, some of them were named after me and somebody named after my family name, I would ask you not to be discouraged in the face of what is going on, because these troubles are rooted in an impulse that is older than the nation states, older than any of our religions. Always there has been a fear that once they get beyond our own kind, something bad can happen. And we are only safe when the other is kept away and, yet, look at these kids. The greatest joy in life happens when we open up to the human possibilities of every single person. Again, how hard I find to say something about what has been said and done today, except that the fundamental lessons of my life in politics were not what I was taught and learned in university or even in the heat of elections and in the debating of the governance. They were learned from me when I was just a little boy growing up watching people live their lives and I have always felt that what I saw and honored had a constant value for everybody.

In this moment, I think it is important that we accept with loud and clear voice that our differences matter, because no one is right all the time. And we have to feel free to voice them and we have to be able to listen to each other, but we must remember that the only way that our differences can matter, the only way we can be able let them have their say and utter out things is when we say it loud and clear our common humanity matters more.

I have watched these last now almost 30 years of Albania history wondered. I was amazed because when I was a young man in university, studying the Cold War, studying the communist world, I used to look Albania on the map and it was presented in every classroom as a massive mystery, closed to the world. “Do not enter!” And I can remember this I was 18 years old  and I wondered whether “I would ever be able to go there?” I wondered “what was really like?” And it wasn’t that I ever thought I would come as a President, I just wanted to know that as a human being, who came from a long way away, who had no prior knowledge could come to this place would seem to me to have a fascinating history and I would think about it being closed off for the rest of the world.

Today I think you have given me a great gift just by saying “hello”, just by letting me watch you, because I have lived around people who sought to have state between themselves and others all my life and I now know this song is now being sang around the world about the importance of divisions, I can hear, feel and see it and I can also feel and see it when it is gone. This is indeed more gone in Albania that in any other place I have been and you should be so proud that you have done this and you have been rewarded for it and you will be, meanwhile we will argue about things.

There is a spat going on in Kosovo now that I wish it would have never happened. It is not my call anymore, but the Kosovars created those four towns for the benefit of the Serbs, to give them four more mayors, as well as a place in parliament. So I think they have made a mistake not to vote. And I think it is easy for Albanians, now in a majority, to try to use the moment to make a point. But the real thing we need to do is to stop this foolishness. What major political issue can possibly be advanced with all the tensions in place? There are people living there. They need to have a decent government and the citizens need to be told “you should always vote.”

I just came from the UK. Hillary and I were there a couple of months ago, celebrating a 25^th anniversary of the Irish Peace Process or the Black Friday and they have a whole issue you don’t have to deal with right now, that is when they started the Northern Ireland there were more Irish protestants, who wanted to remain members of the United Kingdom, but they were willing to give a bigger voice to the Irish Catholics, who would prefer to join the government of Ireland. So, despite all the other things they cared about, they found a way to create a forum so that people could feel they had the right to citizenship. They didn’t stop the disagreements, but they found a way to share the future. And if you think about those four little towns, a long way away from every modern scientific lab, where they are modeling the divisive behaviors that is driving the world today mostly that there are too many countries headed by people who would prefer dominance over cooperation and over converting and over sharing the future. I hope that Albania in ways large and small will be able to first show the world what an inclusive future looks like.

I wish the whole world could see a brief video of all those kids. It is something you take for granted, as it is normal to you, but there are many places in the world, where that would be very strange.

I want you to never underestimate the power of your example. Just as once as a little schoolboy, I wondered what was behind a mysterious wall that kept me from knowing the first thing about Albania. And it took me to ask about 10 people how to pronounce the name of the man who led the country under the communist regime. It was a great mystery. Now, every single person who experiences your country, feels a little bigger, feels a little more intelligent and feels readier to stand here.

We are perfectly well-aware that you still have economic challenges that you have to face, we are perfectly well-aware that you still fight with each other and argue about various things, we are perfectly well-aware that there are challenges that others may need to join you and help you to cope with. In other words, you are humans and you can’t be perfect, but you can be on the right side of history and on the right side of humanity.

So, to me this is not just a day when the Prime Minister and the people gave a man, who is no longer young and no longer has any political power, a nice bit of recognition for doing the right thing for you a long time ago. This is a day when you reaffirmed the concept that people coming together across lines that divide them make better decisions than people who hunker down only with one crowd. The first group makes betted decisions even than the lone geniuses and you can prove it. So, for me, what I care most about is that my grandchildren have a brighter future, that things come together instead of being cornered apart and you have made it clear to me that you agree with that.

I listened to those kids and I was blown away. Don’t forget it is not always easy; don’t forget, you will make a mistake; don’t forget, somebody will say something about you that is false, that is untrue and that they shouldn’t say. You have to figure out how to respond to it.

My friend, now dead a decade ago this year, Nelson Mandela was a genius at taking incoming fire. And he was kept in prison for 27 years. It didn’t matter. Whatever anybody said or did, he thought he could rise.

I remember it was in the airport once, and this is highly relevant to what we are facing, and once Mandela was out of prison and Apartheid was dismantled, then black people who couldn’t vote for 300 years couldn’t lose. Everybody was looking at Mandela. He walks in an airport one day and he sees a beautiful little, blonde haired, blue-eyed girl and he walks up to her and said: “Do you know who I am?” And she said: “Oh, yes. You are Mr. Mandela.” She was about six years old. “And you are my President.” And he said: “Yes, I am for a little while, but if you study hard and our country keeps going in the right direction, someday you could be the president of South Africa too.” And at that time it was the temptation was to say: “look at the way they have treated us, but now we have got the guts, we have got the power.” But Mandela is telling a 5-year-old girl who will never get to vote for him, because she was too young, and he was almost 80, that she could become a president.

That’s what you represent to me; that was what I felt like today when I saw these kids today. So I would ask you to keep it up. We need models and sometimes it is easier for countries that have smaller populations and therefore can continue to see people as people and not like two-dimensional cartoons to lead the path to the rest of us.

One or two most moving things have happened to me since I left the White House. One was when I was in a restaurant in New York where I had a dinner with 12 people in a private lounge, as we had a business meeting to discuss about the Foundation and a waiter came to take our orders. And he looked at who was there; he put the tray down with the water on it and got down on his knees, and looked at me and said: “Because of you, my family is alive.” And other people with me had no idea of what was going on, so that I explained that he was a Kosovar Albanian. And they said: “How do you know?” I said: “Because nearly every New York waiter is a Kosovar Albanian.” And in a good way. But the point is he talked and told to the people there about his family life and what he went through. Keep going this way. Don’t kick people when they let you down. Resists the temptation to treat people the way they treat you. Realize that you have built here something truly glorious. Make everybody who comes to Albania go home wanting their country to be more like you are. Once you were a dark closed door, now your door is open wide.

Thank you for taking the women NGO leaders and their children from the terrible troubles of Afghanistan. You have no idea how important that was.

Thank you for everything you have done to prove that what we have in common is more important than our differences and we have to build a world where we can come together. All the rest is just background music.

I am telling you that when you will get as old as I am you would wonder “why people spend so much energy trying to destroy others over so little?” It happens like that and life just passes and it is gone and all that matters is what you have left things better than you found them; whether children have a brighter future, whether you are coming together instead of being torn apart. And in this time when we have meet existential challenges the climate change presents to our way of life, if you can say “yes” to those things, all the rest of the stuff doesn’t matter at all.

Today you gave me a great gift, bigger even than the honour. You let me see the future working in a place where the past could have killed it. Stay on! God bless you!

Prime Minister Edi Rama: You know it takes longer in the Balkans. It is not over yet. We have another surprise, which is the cutest of all you have seen until now. Look at this little man. He is the youngest Klinton. But the reason are indeed his father and his mother were trying to have a child for over 23 years and he decided “we should have a son and name him Klinton and there is no other way.” And there he is.

There is a little thing to conclude with Hillary and Bill Clinton.

Mr. President, you, the man from Hope have been with us all the way through your words and your deeds, but today you are among us to remind us of the lessons from not a distant history, to reaffirm America’s commitment to our peace and to once again summon us to hope.

No words can adequately express the depth of humility I feel right now by humbly asking you to accept the grand stash with Star of Gratitude for Public Achievement, the highest distinction bestowed by the Prime Minister in office to someone deserving the utmost gratitude from our country.

I really hope that you would feel in esteemed company knowing that this great honour has been bestowed upon Angela Merkel, the EU President Donald Tusk, Cardinal Parolini of the Holy See and our first ever European champion in athletics, Luiza Gega.

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Addressing a ceremony where he was awarded the Grand Star of Gratitude for Public Achievements, Clinton expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Rama for praising his policies and third way approach adopted by him and the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

“When I come across so many of these things being said today in America and elsewhere around the world, things that are only intended to divide us, to make us fear each other, only to justify a treatment that is unfair,” he said.

“I saw it happen in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina years ago when I was serving as President. I saw it happen when I was a young boy in my in my hometown to children who were denied the right to go to school with me because of their race, he said.

“I am amazed to see Albania’s progress in the last 30 years, because I was young I used to study the Cold War and the communist world and I used to see Albania on the map and the country was presented at every class as a mister, a country isolated and secluded from the rest of the world. And I remember, when I was only 18, I wondered: Would I ever go there? I wondered how it could be over there. And I had never thought I would be visiting the country as a President,” Clinton said.

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The aircraft with the former President on board landed in Rinas Airport at around 15:30 hrs. Clinton was hosted with a special ceremony by the Prime Minister Edi Rama.

“Rinas – with President Bill Clinton, the long-standing friend of the Albanian nation, who just set foot in Albania for the first time,” PM Rama wrote on the social media, sharing a picture of the meeting with Clinton.

The former U.S. President’s motorcade then left the airport and headed to Tirana.

An official welcome ceremony is planned to take place in front of the Prime Minister’s office along the Martyrs of the Nation Boulevard, with participation of local residents.

After the national anthems of the United States of America and Albania, Prime Minister Rama and the 42nd U.S. President Bill Clinton will review the guard of honour.

Prime Minister Edi Rama will deliver a special occasion speech and will then invite Bill Clinton to accept a medal due to be awarded to him.

An honouring ceremony is scheduled to take place at 19:25 hrs to award the Star of Gratitude for Public Achievements to former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who is expected to deliver a speech.

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Clinton will pay a two-day visit to Albania upon an invitation of Prime Minister Edi Rama.

The U.S. Embassy noted that Clinton’s visit to Albania is a significant moment in the enduring friendship between our countries.

“Welcome to Tirana, President Clinton! The former President’s first visit to Albania is a significant moment in the enduring friendship between our countries,” U.S. Embassy said.

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American national flags and symbols have been placed along main roads and the Martyrs of the Nation Boulevard where the former U.S. President will be received with an official arrival ceremony.

A huge poster of Bill Clinton reading “Welcome” has been placed on the façade of Tirana University building.

Tirana Municipality will organize a concert entitled “American Night” at the amphitheatre, Tirana Lake Park, on Tuesday evening.

According to the agenda of the visit revealed by the Prime Minister’s office, former U.S. President Clinton will be received by Prime Minister Edi Rama in front of the government building. After the national anthems of the United States of America and Albania, Prime Minister Rama and the 42nd U.S. President Bill Clinton will review the guard of honor and honor the national flags of both nations.

At 19:05 hrs, Prime Minister Edi Rama will deliver a special occasion speech and will then invite Bill Clinton to accept a medal due to be awarded to him.

An honouring ceremony is scheduled to take place at 19:25 hrs to award the Star of Gratitude for Public Achievements to former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who is expected to deliver a speech.

The former President’s visit to Albania coincides with the U.S. Independence Day on July 4.

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“Welcome to Tirana President Clinton! Albania and Albanians are eternally grateful to you for everything you have done for our nation and for Kosovo in particular,” President Begaj.

“Your decision and leadership in the most pivotal moments for the future of Kosovo have placed you on the pedestal of our dearest friends. Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Begaj added in his welcome message.

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The former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton handed over the award to PM Rama. She is at the same time one of the founders of the organization, and the award is dedicated to prominent people who have shown courage and compassion in protecting women and girls around the world.

PM Rama was honoured with this award during a special evening, organized on this occasion, and during which a documentary film was played and a message of gratitude was conveyed to PM Rama by Afghan women currently in Albania.

Albania was one of the countries that did not abandon the Afghans. Prime Minister Edi Rama pledged to host up to 4,000 Afghan refugees, more than every other country in the world.

“It was the right and most natural thing to do,” PM Rama told the “New York Times”. We do not put people in camps. It is inhuman”, – it was said in this documentary.

In her speech, the former Secretary of State said that, “Thus, it is a special honour and pleasure for me to introduce you to someone I admire, whom I have had the privilege of getting to know; whose career I have followed with great interest and admiration, whose leadership is a symbol of a common mission, that of promotion of women and girls, Prime Minister Edi Rama. I would like to see more leaders like him,” said Clinton.

In his speech at the ceremony organized in New York, Prime Minister Rama said that, “Before Secretary Clinton arrived, the ‘shadow’ behind her, a very beautiful shadow, by the way – Huma Abedin, met me and said ‘you are a hero.’ Of course it’s nice to hear such words from such a wonderful woman, but I’m not a hero. It is not heroic…those were people who were in danger of dying and we didn’t turn our back,” he said.

The prime minister highlighted the heroic example of the Albanians during the Second World War who rescued 3750 Jews.

“We are a small country, we cannot change the fate of any war and go to war when the United States decides, but if we are not available even when it’s a question of rescuing people – without doing heroic acts like the old men and women did before us during the Second World War – why should we be NATO member and what would be the value of us in this world?” Rama said.

On the other hand, the prime minister recalled that, “We, Albanians, were like the Afghans 30 years ago, when we had to escape a cruel regime, which was not an Islamic fundamentalist, but an atheist fundamentalist.”

Speaking about the women in government, the prime minister stressed that, “I followed the advice of the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher. She used to say: “If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.” Although, she did not elect any women in her government, concluded PM Rama. /p.s./