At the panel discussion along Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and the President of Finland, Alexander Stubb, moderated by the renowned journalist Ali Aslan entitled “The Future of Europe. What awaits us?” held at GLOBSEC 2024 in Prague, Rama was asked about Albania’s solidarity with Ukraine and the Treaty of Friendship signed between the two countries.

Rama started off his remarks saying that he was honoured to speak on a panel alongside representatives of Nordic countries. “What did you think when you invited me to sit on this panel alongside these two people because I am usually invited to speak on the steam locomotive with people from the Balkans, on panels with 5, 6 invitees. I’m in an electric car with 2 Nordics. I feel very honoured by the way, there’s no doubt about that at all. I have somehow been elevated to a different level of society in Europe. However, I understand that you felt quite alone on the ice and you would like some sun from Albania to increase the temperature a little bit here,” Rama said.

“Since we are in Prague and I have to say that for us who grew up in an isolated country where Washington, Prague were the same, we couldn’t come. We were told that both sides of the U.S. imperialism and Soviet social imperialism were the same devil. So, we had to remain loyal to Stalin even after Russia gave up on Stalin. We learned the hard way that there is no point seeing Russia as a potential partner or ally, as long as in Russia the dream of a certain variant of imperialism, whether in the old or the new way, will not fade,” Rama said.

“We are the only country in Europe since 1990, which has not seen a visit either by our high authorities in Moscow or from the high authorities of Moscow to us.”

“Our solidarity with Ukraine is the most natural thing because as Mette put it, it is unbelievable that in our world, in our Europe, in the 21st century, any disagreement, any different way of understanding neighbourhood cannot be resolved by sending in an army. “This is completely unimagined,” Rama said.

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