Prime Minister Edi Rama at joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the Prime Minister of The Netherlands, Mark Rutte, and several leaders of NATO Allies in The Hague

Prime Minister Edi Rama tonight attended the formal dinner hosted by the Prime Minister of The Netherlands, Mark Rutte, including the Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the leaders of seven NATO Allies in The Hague to help prepare the Alliance’s Summit in Vilnius due on July 11-12.

After the meeting, Prime Minister Edi Rama, together with the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the Prime Minister of The Netherlands, the Presidents of Lithuania, Poland and Romania, and the Prime Ministers of Belgium, and Norway, appeared a joint press conference, with PM Rama saying: “Thank you Mark and let me say that it is a special honor to be here together with all of you. Also I can’t hide my admiration for you as a breaker of the stereotype about your country as a place where one can’t find good food. Congratulations about the great food. But, joking aside, I would like to say that it is very inspiring to be part of NATO in these times and to see that the solidarity, firmness and the readiness to be with Ukraine all the way is unwavering and whoever bets on the chances to break such a solidarity and divide NATO, he has lost and is going to lose till the end.

On the other hand, I cannot confirm what was said about Ukraine and I would like to make use of this short minute to add that we could also discuss the worrisome situation in the Western Balkans, precisely in Northern Kosovo, where some days and weeks ago KFOR soldiers were hurt and we very much hope that common sense will prevail and that de-escalation will start as soon as possible, because any further escalation may lead to a catastrophic end and we don’t want to see a break within our region, which has done so well in the last years and in the meantime we wish to see the EU-facilitated dialogue succeeds, of course with the NATO full support that is responsible for the presence of its KFOR mission as an instrumental presence for the security. So, Mark, thank you again and it is a great honor!

Question: Mr. Prime Minister Rama, you compared the situation in northern Kosovo with Donbas in Ukraine. Did you discuss the situation with Mr. Stoltenberg and other colleagues and what can be seen as a solution to this situation? 

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you. Just to make it clear, I actually simply stated that the perspective of the creation of a little Donbas in the middle of Europe, because of further escalation, is indeed a real threat and we all have to do what we have to do to prevent it from happening by encouraging dialogue on one hand, taking dialogue even to a higher level in the European Union, with the support of the United States of America, and, on the other hand, by making it very clear through NATO that KFOR is there to guarantee full integrity and also stability in case of any disruption that can happen exactly because of an irresponsible escalation. This is my concern and we shared it and I felt it in Brussels, I feel it here that everyone understands that it is time to act and prevent this spiral of absurdities from taking down what we have built so far with the help of the European Union in our region. Thank you!