Prime Minister Edi Rama is on a visit to the United States of America, where he will attend the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, the largest annual gathering of world leaders, civil society activists, private sector stakeholders and protagonists, and young people from all over the world to attend various summits, debates and dialogue in New York over a two-week period.
During his visit, PM Rama will be received by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, along with other participating leaders, and is set to hold separate meetings with UN high-level officials, politicians and personalities in various fields. The Premier will participate in a series of events on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session; including the Transforming Education Summit; the general debate entitled “A watershed moment: transformative solutions to interlocking challenges,” or the event “Challenges and Multifaceted Responses to peace, security, and climatic crisis.”
Prime Minister Rama, accompanied by the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Olta Xhaçka, will deliver a speech to the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.
The Premier began the agenda of his visit with an interview for the Wake Up America show.
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Thank you very much! I am joined by the former Director of National Intelligence Agency, Richard Grenell, also a former ambassador to Germany, here in New York City as the UN General Assembly is ready to discuss several issues over the next two weeks, including the war in Ukraine and the global energy shortage. Also being discussed are the cyber-attacks Iran has executed against several countries, including Albania. For more on this we are joined by the Prime Minister of Albania, Mr. Edi Rama. Mr. Prime Minister, it is great to have you here with us.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: It is great to be with you. Thank you.
– I want to start with the big news today, of course the funeral for Queen Elizabeth II. I know that you met the Queen three years ago to mark the 70th anniversary of NATO. What was that experience like?
PM Edi Rama: It was a big reception at the Buckingham Palace and, of course, it was memorable for me and I am sure for everyone else, but I would say that there is no better way to put it than how French President has put it: “For the British, she was their Queen, but for all of us she was the Queen.” So it is a very strong feeling all over the world and it touches everyone, because she was a bit like “The Queen”. And while the Brits now have their King, we don’t have The Queen anymore.
-Were you nervous before that experience, because I’ve heard former American presidents saying that it was the only time that they were nervous before meeting the Queen?
PM Edi Rama: They had to be nervous, because they had to have an audience with her; they had to consume time with her, which was not actually my case. I could simply hide behind other NATO allies and although I am tall, I could avoid nervousness.
-Mr. Prime Minister, for our American audience, I think people understand that Albania has been a NATO member since 2009. And, you recently came out with a very clear and strong statement, accusing Iran of a cyber-attack, multiple cyber-attacks on Albania. Obviously, that created world-wide news, as you were very clear in kicking Iranian diplomats out of Albania. What has been the response from NATO allies and what is the latest on these cyber-attacks?
PM Edi Rama: I want to make it very clear. It is not that I accused Iran, but it is that we have proof based on a very thorough forensic work by the Microsoft’s counterintelligence threat super team, as well as the super squad of the American specialized agencies, that the Islamic Republic of Iran is behind the attack as it has sponsored four groups, including a top cyber terror group that was behind the attacks on Saudi Arabia, Israel, Kuwait, and so on. So, it is not an accusation, it is a fact.
On the other hand, we realized that it was time to cut any relations with this regime, because as a matter of fact we couldn’t let anymore their embassy continue to be in the middle of the capital city and continue working as an operational centre to harm our country.
-Have you talked about the Article 5 with the NATO members, as the attack on one is an attack on all? As a NATO member, this is an attack.
PM Edi Rama: It is true, but at the same time we have preferred to first build up and raise not simply an awareness, but also build up an alliance for support, because what we need now is to speed up all our plans on building state-of-the art cyber defence, because even after the mass attack on July 15, we faced another one and we are prepared to see more such attacks to come, because everyone knows that this regime is involved and engaged in this kind of activities all over the world and it is very preoccupying that this is happening while the common defence response is not yet there.
-Should the Biden administration be negotiating with the Iranian regime, at the same time that the Iranian regime are clearly killing gay people, killing women and making cyber-attacks on a NATO Ally?
PM Edi Rama: It is not up to me to say it, because Albania is a very strong and committed ally of the United States of America. Of course, we know our place and we know it is not on our shoulder to take the burden of big or major decisions, having lived under a very similar regime for so many years, which was not a religious totalitarian regime, but it was an atheist totalitarian regime, and I can tell from experience that dealing in our own way, I mean the way of the democratic countries, with these kind of regimes, it doesn’t seem to me a very long-sighted vision.
-Mr. Prime Minister, seven months ago I don’t think most people in America could find Ukraine on the map. This is your region of the world, as Albania is not far from Ukraine. Can you talk about how this war has affected the people of Albania in that part of the world?
PM Edi Rama: First of all, I have to share with you and your audience that Albania is a particular case, because it has a particular history. We used to be the North Korea of Europe. We were isolated from both the West and the East and we had no ties with the Kremlin since the 1960-s for bad reasons, because our dictatorship wanted Kremlin to remain Stalinist, to remain ruthlessly against and oppose any sort of dialogue with the West, and so on and so forth. But, on the other hand, this history made us completely distanced from Russia and over the past 30 or a bit more years of building democracy, we never had serious bilateral exchanges, and we have never had a Russian president visiting Albania, we never visited the Kremlin, and I really don’t miss it.
On the other hand, we don’t depend on the Russian gas, as Albania completely relies on renewable energy, despite our own problems, because it is a hydro-reliant energy and when the “Big Guy” up there is not crying enough, we have to suffer a lot the lack of water and therefore we are forced to import electricity and as such we are affected by the price. But all this being said, I would conclude by saying that it is not difficult to keep a very strong position in a country, where Putin’s popularity is less than one percent and where 99% and even more people think this is wrong and that this aggression is unacceptable and we should stand with Ukraine and we should stand for what we believe in.
–I have a very serious question about…
PM Edi Rama: You always have serious questions.
– It is about your art talent. The Prime Minister is an amazing artist. Is that book of your art available in the United States? Can Americans see your art? Or how Americans can see that you are the Prime Minister of Albania, a NATO ally, and an artist?
PM Edi Rama: First of all, I don’t know how much the word cluster “amazing artist” can be appropriate in this very city, where the really amazing artists are everywhere, but I have had the honour to be invited and show my work at the Marian Goodman gallery, which is the heart of the contemporary art and there are still my works there. So everyone can go and see them there.
-What sort of art, if I may ask? Painting?
PM Edi Rama: The best sort of art. This is the easiest answer to explain your art, while it is actually something more complicated than that. I paint while in my office. So I continue to work as Prime Minister in my office, but in the meantime continue to make my drawings, while listening to my collaborators, while being on the phone and on the less burdening weekends I join a friend of mine to do my sculptures.
-I would like to see some of these. Mr. Prime Minister, thanks so much for being with us! We appreciate it a lot!
PM Rama: Thank you!
