Prime Minister Edi Rama, on a working visit to the United Arab Emirates, today toured the Dubai World Expo 2020”, brings together 192 countries – including Albania – on one mega platform of global cooperation under the banner of ‘Connecting Minds and Creating the Future’, with the key subthemes being Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability.

Albania pavilion has attracted the visitors’ attention for the country’s natural wonders, cultural heritage and development energies.

Prime Minister Rama invited the participants to visit Albania as home to stunning natural beauties and huge potential for everyone to explore. “A small, but so a beautiful country, with mountains, rivers, valleys and two seas; a small but beautiful country, where the Muslim, Christians, Orthodox and Catholics live together in full harmony and where the first Constitution written by the hands of Albanians, in its very first paragraph stipulates  “house of an Albanian belongs to God and the guest.”

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Your Excellency,

Dear friends,

It is with a sense of pride and gratitude that we are here today, invited to celebrate Albania’s participation among a record number of 192 countries that have come together in this magnificent Dubai Expo.

It is also with a great sense of pride and gratitude that we are here in a very friendly country, with which, thanks to really a special man, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and His late father – God bless him – we have a history of solidarity, humanism and friendship.

It was in 1999 when Sheik Mohammed Zayed, together with Sheikh Maktoum and a group of people arrived in Albania’s northeast to assist together with many other good humans from all over the world hundreds of thousands of families, forcefully displaced from their land because of a mad so-called special  operation against Albanians in Kosovo.

Since then, this country found a special place in our hearts, in our memory and our history. But it was not the only case to see the expression of humanity and the sense of responsibility towards the world and other human beings, regardless their ethnicity, their religion and language that this country  and this country’s leadership, because more than 20 years after that tragedy, another tragedy was to hit our country, a devastating earthquake. And guess what. It was the United Arab Emirates and their leader who came forward among the very first nations and thanks to the leadership of this country and the generosity of the people of this country, a brand new neighbourhood is now being built in the outskirts of the city of Durres, the hardest-hit area by the earthquake.

And like in a real dream of solidarity and friendship, of looking forward towards the future together, on one hand there is this ongoing construction work for those who were deprived of their homes and, on the other hand, in the same city, precisely by the sea, there is the project on construction of one of the most beautiful tourist ports in the world and probably the biggest one in the Mediterranean, and that is gradually taking shape as a project and it is being readied to take its final shape in the eyes of the Albanian citizens and everyone else who increasingly wish to visit Albania, thanks again to the push from here and namely His Highness himself and thanks to a great friend of our country, Mohamed Alabbar, who is here with us today and whom I would like to greet together with his beautiful daughter. Thank you for being here!

In this great Expo, everyone has the chance to see in these very turbulent times how great is the potential of the countries and the people around the world to deliver on good things if they come together, work together, and if they walk together. And of course, among so many countries, being small, we have a humble presence here, but we strongly believe we are among those countries that are yet to be discovered and among those destinations that are yet to be enjoyed by people from Europe, Middle East and from all over the world. A small, but so a beautiful country with mountains, rivers, valleys and two seas; a small but beautiful country, where the Muslim, Christians, Orthodox and Catholics live together in full harmony and where the first Constitution written by the hands of Albanians, in  its very first paragraph stipulates  “house of an Albanian belongs to God and the guest.”

So, whoever will visit our modest pavilion, to all of those who are listening and will be listening to my remarks, I would like to invite them to come to Albania, to visit Albania and I can assure that you won’t regret doing so. On the contrary, you would just want to come back again.

Thank you to the Dubai Expo organizers!

Thank you to the leaders of this country!

Thank you to the government here in Dubai and everyone that participated in the effort to bring us here and make us feel part of this community of countries that, as I said, by staying together can show from here how huge is the potential for good and what a wonderful place the world can be if all of us would walk together.

Thank you very much!