Prime Minister Rama participated today in the meeting of the leaders of NATO member countries from Southeast Europe and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

After the meeting between them, the participating leaders, Prime Minister Edi Rama, Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia, President of the Republic of Croatia, Prime Minister of the Republic of Montenegro and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gave a joint press conference :

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg: Prime Minister Kovačevski, Dear Dimitar,

Thank you very much for hosting us today here in Skopje together with NATO allies from the region. I am glad to be with you here today. It was the last of a series of interesting meetings where we talked about challenges that everyone faces in the Western Balkans. I will start by saying that the Republic of North Macedonia is a valuable ally of NATO and offers important contributions to our common security.

North Macedonia also leads by example as a very successful ethnic society, showing how people from different ethnic and religious groups, from different profiles can live together in peace and build the country together.

In a few months we will mark the 75th anniversary of NATO at our next summit in Washington and we will continue to adapt our alliance for the future, of course to strengthen NATO’s defense and also against geostrategic competition we will maintain the momentum and the step in NATO support for Ukraine.

Today, in our meeting, we had the opportunity to discuss all these issues and the situation in the Western Balkans. This region is strategically important for NATO, but there are reasons for concern. We see threats of secession in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a fragile security situation in Kosovo, and likewise stalled normalization between Belgrade and Pristina.

On top of all that, authoritarian states like Russia seek to undermine our democracies with hybrid and cyber threats. Having just completed a tour of the region, I have made it clear at every stop that stability in the Western Balkans depends on all sides choosing dialogue and diplomacy over conflict and chaos.

An end to divisive rhetoric would promote stability and reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Re-engagement in EU-mediated dialogue is essential for Belgrade and Prishtina on their path to peace and prosperity. The latest proposals for the establishment of the association in municipalities or communes with a Serbian majority in Kosovo could be an important step forward. It is time to overcome regional conflicts, which have been going on for a long time.

We also discussed Russia’s cruel war of aggression against Ukraine. There are no signs that Putin wants to negotiate with us or stop the fighting, so I congratulate the NATO allies here today who have provided vital support to Ukraine. This is even more important when the situation on the battlefield is so difficult.

So Prime Minister thank you very much for hosting us all today. I look forward to working more closely with you. All of us will start preparing for the next Summit in Washington.

Thank you very much!

Prime Minister Edi Rama: I thank Prime Minister Kovacevski for the invitation and the Secretary General of NATO for engaging and facilitating this meeting, which is the first of its kind at the end of the Secretary General’s tour in our region, and I would like to inform that the Secretary General received with interest the proposal to build a format of a NATO Summit with the Western Balkans where not only NATO member countries in this region, but also NATO partner countries are present, also other countries of the Western Balkans that are not present here today, as well as the rest of the member countries that border the region, as they have a direct interest in the stability and democratic progress of the region.

On the other hand, I would like to emphasize that I feel sorry for the fact that despite the repeated calls to significantly increase not only the attention, but also the troops, which should guarantee the absolute stability and inviolability of Kosovo, a tragic event has occurred , which should be considered a warning and not a sporadic event, which should by all means not be repeated. For this reason, I also emphasized today in the meeting the necessity of increasing the number of NATO forces in Kosovo and the necessity to guarantee the border between Kosovo and Serbia, which is actually out of control and which is at the service of illegal traffic activities. Weapons, drug trafficking, activities, which then get mixed up, as we all know, with political activity, with an ultra-nationalist background that causes serious deviations, such as the deviation in Banjska where a policeman of the Republic of Kosovo lost his life in the line of duty and where the high risk of destabilization and escalation of conflict clearly emerged, which, as the Secretary General said, has only one place, to be addressed, at the dialogue table mediated by the European Union between Kosovo and Serbia.

On the other hand, I would also like to emphasize the request that Albania’s application to co-finance with NATO the new NATO naval base in Porto Romano be processed as soon as possible because we strongly believe that everything that happens step by step, and reinforces the strategic value of such an investment, not simply for Albania, nor simply for our entire region, but also for NATO itself, which will gain another quick access to this side of Europe, just in case and for the strategic goals of common defense.

Once again, thank you, dear Dimitar, thank you, dear Jens, for this opportunity to share these concerns together, while Albania approves the 2024 budget with a defense financing objective of 2%, as laid out by the NATO roundtable for all member countries and we will continue to be very engaged and very dedicated to strengthen our capacities, to increase the efficiency of our armed forces and at the same time remain at the forefront of NATO countries a member of responsible and steadfast in all common challenges.

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– It seems that the situation in the north of Kosovo once again brought back the issue of security in the Western Balkans. What do you see as a concrete solution for this, especially after what you communicated and another question related to the fact that Albania is a NATO member country, will Albania ask other NATO member countries the support of Kosovo’s journey in the North Atlantic Alliance and if Spain and Hungary seem to be skeptical about these? Thank you.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: For the first question, I believe to have already explained our position in relation to the necessity for NATO’s increased presence in Kosovo and especially it’s engagement with more troops to secure the border between Serbia and Kosovo, which is source of many evils and from which individuals, groups, forces that aim to destabilize Kosovo penetrate.

On the other hand, it is indisputable and I believe not without reason that the Secretary General underlined that it is not a direct instrument of NATO, but an instrument of the European Union and the only way to deal with all the problems that must be resolved towards the final peace between Serbia and Kosovo, is the way of dialogue mediated by the EU.

And at this point, I believe that not only do we all agree, but we also have, as you heard, a common desire that the next format of this nature will be developed with the presence of other BP countries as well which are not members of NATO, but which have agreements of different levels of partnership with NATO.

This is extremely important, just as it should not be forgotten for any moment that the peace we have in this region is extremely precious even though it has its own fragility and the strengthening of peace is a strategic objective of everyone and must be so at every step and for many reasons, even more so in a world not far away from us, which is about to be involved in wars, because now we not only have a war at the doors of Europe, in Ukraine, but we also have another war in the continuation of the conflict between Israel and Hamas and let’s not forget that we are a region, not only multi-ethnic, but also multi-religious and the negative impacts of that conflict are not excluded from our region, therefore here, in our region, we must all together we do everything possible not to take a single step back because we come from a past, not too distant with a lot of blood, with a lot of wounds, with a lot of pain and we have never been better than today, but of course, tomorrow must to be much better than today if we don’t want tomorrow to be yesterday.

And of course, for the second question, we are convinced that Kosovo should be helped to accelerate its integration into NATO. I want to thank the President of Croatia, who has repeatedly echoed this opinion at all NATO tables and without question that I share with him the absolute conviction that it is absurd for Kosovo to be hindered in this process, meanwhile that all of us together in NATO are not only attentive, but also engaged in Kosovo currently. And the Euro-Atlantic direction of Kosovo is beyond any kind of discussion, while the hesitations to recognize Kosovo from EU countries, from NATO countries, are an echo of a past, which is always less relevant, compared to the present. which has brought so many new challenges and which requires much more unity and much more strategic vision.