Prime Minister Edi Rama and the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Olta Xhacka appeared at a joint press conference following the NATO Summit in Madrid, Spain:
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Good afternoon! Together with the Minister, we deemed it appropriate to hold a communication and share some more information of the most recent NATO summit in Madrid, a special Alliance gathering in terms of duration and of course in terms of the importance and its substance, certainly concerning the war in Ukraine and its consequences, as well as the plans for the Alliance’s further response and actions.
In addition to this part, which was definitely the central part, the summit also featured another element that is important for us and that had to do with the potential negotiation on a final agreement between Bulgaria and North Macedonia so that the path towards opening the EU accession negotiations formally is eventually cleared. We are here and available to take questions and provide answers on all these and other issues too.
A special focus was placed on the Western Balkans, precisely because of the region’s complexity and its vulnerability for already known factors and reasons. Our position has been the same, the one known and the position we have repeatedly reiterated on more than one occasion for the indispensability of keeping Serbia as much as possible aligned and close to the front against aggression and the indispensability that the pressure on Serbia does not lead to a crisis with incalculable consequences for the region itself.
On the other hand, we have demanded that Kosovo be included in NATO’s partnership for peace mechanism that would represent another higher stage of Kosovo’s relations with NATO and which precedes membership with the Alliance.
Kosovo, although Ukraine has yet to recognize it – and I have strongly emphasized this fact –has maintained an absolutely clear position, demonstrating significant wisdom as a state vis-à-vis the obligations towards this big family of allies and nations, with which Kosovo’s fate is inseparably and inevitably related.
In the meantime, we have also discussed our project and we will return to Brussels soon to go on with the discussion our proposal, which has attracted not only interest, but also readiness to further deepen talks on installation of a NATO naval base at the new seaport in Durres, due to be relocated in Porto Romano, which in addition to the commercial and cargo part could be designed to also host a military facility.
A special meeting between the team of Albanian experts and NATO experts is set to take place on this issue soon to unveil the detailed design and carry on with further talks and discussions on the project. NATO has embarked on a new phase of co-funding special projects. You know that a NATO tactical air base is currently being built in Kuçova, an entirely foreign funding, while as for the port, we will of course finance construction of the entire commercial part and we have invited NATO to participate in co-funding the military part of the new port. If we deliver, the project will definitely be of extraordinary strategic value for Albania, but also of important strategic value for NATO itself.
The last but not least part concerns the efforts already made to reach an agreement that, as I already noted, would eventually clear the way towards formal opening of the accession negotiations with the European Union. I have been contacting the French President all the time recently. The French President actually deserves a special acknowledgment and a big thank you, because he has personally followed this process for 48 hours straight, and exchanged messages about this even after midnight.
In my view, the new proposal is also the final one and we must understand this right, especially our brothers in North Macedonia. It is a completely acceptable proposal and the government, the parliamentary majority in North Macedonia should accept it without any hesitation. What should also be clear for Bulgaria is that we have absolutely no problem with Bulgaria, we have no concern of any nature other than the concern created by Bulgaria’s approach to the bilateral issue in North Macedonia and the kidnapping of North Macedonia and Albania as a result, although the process could have been very civil and much more European on the part of Bulgaria, but we can do nothing about it now. I now hope that authorities and state institutions in North Macedonia will explore and complete the process of adopting the latest French proposal soon.
I have nothing more to comment on Bulgaria, but I very much hope that we encounter no other countries behaving like Bulgaria as an expression of the crooked spirit of EU enlargement in the future.
