Meeting with the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Marie Royce as part of visits by high-ranking U.S. government officials to Albania:

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Marie Royce: Distinguished guests! Thank you Mr. Prime Minister Rama for your hospitality! This is my first time in Albania and I am already stunned by your country’s natural beauty and the warm reception your people are giving me.

We, the United States have been with you. We have been with you from the very start. The U.S.-Albania relationship and between our two people has never been stronger and I am very happy to be here in Albania as Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs.

I am here to highlight and strengthen some of the ways we cooperate with Albania in the area of education and culture. More than 2340 Albanians have participated in my Bureau’s programmes on Educational and Cultural Affairs. As President Trump notes in his national security strategy, the people exchanges create the network of the current and future political, civil society and education leaders, who will create a free and prosperous world.

Exchange programmes are one of the best ways for Albanians, the Americans, and people from other countries to learn about each other’s culture, make friendships and develop their skills. Recently, my colleague Under Secretary Keith Krach was here, and I am here to continue on his path. You will be seeing a lot of Americans here in Albania. That is for sure. Thank you Mr. Prime Minister!

Thank you for hosting me today and for highlighting only some of the very important programmes we have together. I am looking forward to our meeting and go on with my trip and I know that the relationship between the United States and Albania will grow stronger in the future.

Thank you very much!

 

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you and you are more than welcome as always when someone comes from that part of the world. I don’t recall in all my years of experience any such a high-level visit in the area of education and culture and therefore this is quite an event for us, because I very much believe in the strength of education and culture and though we have always seen you as a superpower this has been in fields other than education or culture.

Of course, though we have had cooperation programmes on culture and education, as you also noted, an impressive number of Albanians benefit under your programmes in U.S. and more than that there are also Albanians taking advantage of your programmes in Albania, but still  I think there are much more things to be done and I very much hope that your visit will help in this regard to do a lot more in the near and distant future and by no doubt there are so many fantastic things to learn from the United States also in the field of education and culture. But believe me, there are not more than few things you can learn from our culture. In the end of the day, culture is a sphere where U.S. has yet to learn from many other countries with a longer and much more complex history.

Thank you again for being here and let me also thank your Ambassador here who has brought a lot of energy and readiness to provide more support in the field of culture and education and thank our Ambassador to the U.S., who has been instrumental in broadening the horizon of our cooperation.

Thank you again and I wish you have a very pleasant stay in Albania!

We worked hard to bring the sun back and now you have it all for yourself. 

Enjoy it!