Prime Minister Edi Rama welcomed today the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Commonwealth and Development, of the United Kingdom, Lord David Cameron, who arrived for a visit to Albania.
In the meeting held in the Hall of Maps, the Prime Minister confirmed the very good relations that exist between the countries, as well as the fruitful cooperation, as two NATO allied countries that share the same European principles and values regarding democracy, individual freedom and the rule of law, engaging on a bilateral and multilateral level for their advancement and improvement.
After the meeting, Prime Minister Edi Rama and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Commonwealth and Development, of the United Kingdom Lord David Cameron gave a joint press statement.
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Prime Minister Edi Rama: Good day everyone! Today is a special day for us, as well as for me personally, because we are hosting a special friend, a well-known political personality.
It is a special day because not only do we have a friend from a country that is a very important ally and partner, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Commonwealth and Development, Lord David Cameron, but at the same time a special friend of this region and of Albania, who finally came to Tirana after receiving the invitation for several years, and now I am convinced that he will return again.
Today we have discussed our very good bilateral relations and the further deepening of them, both in terms of relations as two allied countries in NATO, and also in terms of bilateral relations in terms of which the United Kingdom aims to be more present in our region, and without going into all the plans of our bilateral cooperation, I would like to emphasize that we talked about the involvement of the United Kingdom in a strategic project of special importance for Albania, for Kosovo, but also for the region that is the Durrës-Prishtina railway, which aims to increase the movement capacities, not only between our two countries, but in the region and beyond, bearing in mind that soon we will open the international competition for the New Trade Port of Durrës. We are waiting for the final answer from NATO for the military wing of the port of Durrës and at the same time, as you are informed, Kosovo will also build a ‘dry port’ in Pristina. These are projects which exceeds the interest of our two countries and in which the United Kingdom has expressed an interest to be involved, either with funding or with expertise, and I am grateful to the Secretary as he is, as I said, a very important advocate of ours in support of all the transformative processes of our region.
On the other hand, we talked about the joint program of the fight against illegal human trafficking and we are definitely very satisfied with the results achieved, but our joint operation will continue and the readiness to discourage the flows of this traffic will be at maximum in the future, which is of course also related to the common will to get to the root of this phenomenon, which is related to organized crime networks.
Thirdly, we also discussed the progress of the peace and cooperation processes in the region. Lord Cameron is a staunch supporter of these processes and it is widely known that the United Kingdom has repeatedly expressed a special interest in seeing the full normalization of regional relations and in seeing the successful conclusion of the dialogue process between Kosovo and Serbia, where there have been positive steps, but where there is still stagnation and the risk of going back is still felt.
And leaving the floor to our distinguished and special friend today, I would like to thank Prime Minister Sunak, as well as Lord Cameron for their willingness to support Albania’s bid to become the host country of the great joint European community summit next year, which will begin this year on July 18 in London.
David once again thank you! It is truly an honor, it is a much more special pleasure than you can imagine, that you are here today, and I repeat it, that you must now be accountable in front of all Albanians that you promised to come back, so now it’s not just me, but all the Albanians who will see if you are the politician who keeps the promise or not.
Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development, United Kingdom Lord David Cameron: Thank you Prime Minister, thank you Edi!
It is really a special pleasure for me to be in Albania today and one of the reasons why I wanted to come, and I am sorry it took so long, and that this is such a short visit, but one of those reasons is to celebrate your success, because Albania is really a success story from the economic point of view, success in NATO, you have also successfully done the impossible and a great job and a very great leadership in the Security Council and for that I want to thank you for your leadership, not only because you have won more elections than I have, and that you continue to be in office, but because you have given such a clear direction for where you want Albania to go and where Albania should be in the sphere of NATO and the European Union.
What I can say from the British point of view, and I speak here on behalf of our Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, is that this has been, is and will be one of the most fruitful and positive partnerships for us. Exports, for example, have increased by 20%. We have very exciting projects, such as the railway that you explained, from Prishtina to Durrës, which will be very, very important, not only for Albania, but also for Kosovo and for the entire region.
It is actually a very positive relationship also from the defense aspect, not only the partnership in NATO and the work we are doing to achieve Ukraine’s membership in NATO, but also in fact for the direct support that we have given each other. So a partnership also in terms of the fight against organized crime and serious crime and we are happy to help modernize your judiciary as you continue your reforms.
And of course, about migration. It has been a really wonderful partnership, very positive, very successful and I hope it will be an example for others, because throughout Europe the problem of irregular migration is a problem that everyone faces and as I have told other foreign affairs ministers, is a problem that you have to face, otherwise in the case of Albania and the United Kingdom, you have shown that you are innovative, you are creative and you work for these strong partnerships and thanks to this work you achieve excellent results, your economy has grown, the tourism sector will be very, very successful in the years to come and there will be many opportunities for people to stay in Albania, further building the country’s economy and improving it, and for that, you will have our help.
Thank you for what you said that I am a friend of the Western Balkans and the region. In fact, for me this is quite a compliment.
In fact, I have a very fair and simple view that when the Western Balkans does well, then Europe does well. If there are problems in the Western Balkans, then there are also problems in Europe, because in fact it is in our common interest to help in the process of reconciliation, economic growth, and understanding, and for me this has been a priority since I was prime minister and in this month I will continue with this work.
And I am really very pleased that you will be at the meeting which will be on the 18th of July as you also said, but it will actually be at Blenheim Palace, not in London, which is part of the constituency for which I was an MP and is one of the most wonderful buildings we have in the United Kingdom and it will be a very, very important meeting, not only for all the countries of the European Union, but also for countries like Albania, the United Kingdom, which want to have a positive and strong relationship throughout our continent.
So we will talk about all these issues, it could be migration, the support we give to Ukraine, or issues related to stability, economic growth, successes here in the Balkans.
It was wonderful and a pleasure to be here today and to have our conversation and I will certainly keep my promise to return for further discussions later in the year, but it was indeed a pleasure to come and to have a conversation with each other, and congratulations on all you have achieved.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Due to a very busy agenda, Lord Cameroon will come next time to answer your questions.