Prime Minister Edi Rama: 

As we meet today, we confront yet another year of complex crisis and conflict as a deeply divided world watches. Our prospects for a more peaceful, just and equitable world are blurred today.

Our times are challenging.

A few days ago, we committed to the Pact of the future, a sound framework with a high level of ambition and actionable deliverables.

We have made other similar major commitments in the past. We have not always kept them. To put it very mildly, We have paid the price. This is yet another chance, one we take under pressure to make a difference for a more peaceful and prosperous future, while the time we live in could not be grimmer.

Albania humbly joins this discussion after the conclusion of its mission, for the first time at the UN Security Council. We aim to represent this community of countries that stand together for those values and principles that are non-negotiable, and we sincerely hope to have met the expectations of many.

Today, more than ever, we need tolerance and trust and an extended hand of friendship to each other, make no mistake by tolerance, I do not mean complacency.

Tolerance demands that we go beyond our comfort zones and not merely tolerate, but tolerate respectfully, actively and graciously, by not simply accepting others’ views, but constantly engaging with the complexity of all our own histories. Tolerance for us albanians is not merely the passive acknowledgement and grudging acceptance of someone’s diversity.

That form of tolerance, the tolerance that Muslims and Christian albanians expressed during World War Two towards the Jews by putting their lives on the line against evil and making Albania the only country in Europe to end the war with more Jews than it had when The War began requires its own partisan spirits, it requires engaging with the one who is different from us, accommodating disagreements with respect and continuing to build bridges so that we can continue to debate and foster further understanding and peace by putting ourselves in the others shoes.

It also requires that we continue to challenge ourselves by reflecting on the possibility of our own biases and prejudices, by reflecting on the arbitrariness and unilaterally that we attribute to others, and by constantly interrogating our own double moral standards, it is with the trust in humanity and humanism that Albania became a safe heaven for the people who escaped death after the fall of Kabul under the Taliban, who were welcomed and accepted by my country, while bigger and richer EU member states of NATO turned back to them.

In the same spirit we gave shelter to several 1000 Iranian refugees whose lives were in daily danger in Camp Liberty in Iraq, where they were raided and killed by Tehran assassins, we paid a dear price for being their host. The Tehran totalitarian regime engaged in a large-scale cyber-attack against Albania, which aimed to bring the country to its knees by wiping out all our digital infrastructure of public services. They were very brutal, but they failed miserably. We didn’t waver, and we will not waver in our commitment to shelter those people in our country for as long as it takes. Our hospitality was not and is not at all related to any political stance against Iran, but only to humanitarian belief engraved in our spirit as a nation.

We recently extended a hand of help to our neighbour and special friend, Italy, in an effort to ease the difficulties that geography has burdened on them with one of the most pressuring phenomena of our times, immigration.

Meanwhile, instead of just talking, we try to act without pretending to solve the huge immigration problem in Europe, but on the other hand, without just sitting around and by trying to build and add something constructive, we just did our part.

This attitude of solidarity, cooperation and good neighbourly relations is the linchpin of our policy in our region, the Western Balkans in our region, after more than a quarter of a century, the deep uns left by the violent disintegration of the former Yugoslavia still need to be healed, but we have also seen the construction of peace reflected, above all, by the vision unparalleled wisdom and courage that led to the creation of the European Union.

All of us in the Western Balkans have tried for over a decade to come together and meet and talk about the challenges and plans for our common future.

It is Albania firm belief that we need to look at the past with the eyes of the future and not look at the future with the eyes of the past. Today, the peoples of the Balkans have a moment of historical opportunity in a context of historical danger in the wider Europe, where the Russian aggression against Ukraine should serve us all as a permanently ringing bell.

I would say that the Western Balkans is in a much better position today than ever before, but we must work tirelessly and patiently among ourselves in the region, and above all, with our allies and partners to make sure that the return to the past is not just impossible, but simply unimaginable.

In this context, our brotherly republic of Kosova is an irreversible reality as a state among the six countries of the Western Balkans with a clear European perspective and an undisputed allegiance to the large democratic community of nations, any artificially drawn parallels between Kosova and the occupied areas of Ukraine are meant to distract and to confuse whomever possible under this roof and the whole international public opinion, but they can never achieve to delude the truth which is Kosova is now an intrinsic part of the international reality, an inspiring member of the Euro Atlantic community, and must not be held hostage by anyone with false pretensions and excuses, starting with a group of five EU members that still do not recognize Kosovo’s rightful place in every international forum and organization.

In the third year of the unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression of Russia against Ukraine, we feel compelled to renew our call for Russia to stop this war, this war that neither Ukraine, nor our community of like-minded nations, choose a catastrophe conceived by the decision of one country and indeed, one delusional dreamer of an old imperial past, rewarding an aggressor who annexes the territories of a sovereign country by disarming the victim of the aggression does not bring peace, but paves the way for more war.

All those who seek peace by stopping Ukraine instead of stopping the Neo imperialist Russia’s aggression are wrong, and they should be aware of a very simple truth, a peace that defeats Ukraine would bring only further aggression and will turn our world into one rule by might, not by right.

Yes, we seek peace too, and we want peace to be made between Ukraine and Russia as soon as possible and of course, we will support any peace attempt and formal that would include Russia around the table, but we seek a justice based on the charter of this United Nations, international law and the resolutions of this General Assembly of the United Nations, a peace that cannot undermine Ukraine and its rights.

Earlier this year, in Tirana, our capital, we hosted the second summit between Ukraine and Southeast Europe and welcomed President Zelensky, a true and brave leader of resistance which is not simply a resistance to a brutal aggression against their homeland, but at the same time, a resistance for the very existence of democracy and the just ruled based Europe and world.

Albania will continue to stand by Ukraine and support it for as long as necessary and as long as a lasting, just peace is achieved.

There is another war waging Europe South East too. Albania stands firm in its position that there is no place for Hamas and its likes in the world we want to live in, in a fully recognized right of the Palestinian people to have their own safe place in this world, and their right to give birth and raise their children in their own state. Guaranteeing such a basic condition for millions of Palestinians is much easier said than done, just as it is much easier said than done for the Jewish people to live in their land without anyone around questions their right to exist.

We need to restore our moral compass in the Middle East. Yes, of course, but there is no moral compass that can relativize and, God forbid, normalize terror and a terrorist organization like Hamas as a part of the peace we all want between Israel and Palestine. Doing so would be like relativizing the scourge of anti semitism and accepting to coexist with a new vicious form of Nazism, which is the worst thing that could have happened for so many years to first and foremost, the Palestinian people themselves.

Nevertheless, it is not too difficult to state loudly and strongly that so much violence and destruction cannot be the long-term solution for both Israel and Palestine and should stop.

We reaffirm here our national support for a just and comprehensive resolution of the Israeli Palestinian conflict based on the two-state solution.

Albania supports the international community efforts related to this conflict through dialog and negotiations leading to a true independent state solution, living in peace and good neighbourliness, a functional state of Palestine and a secure state of Israel, which, instead of being lectured from far away, should be supported with no yes, but in its fight against terror, while still more than 100 innocent people are being kept hostage in hellish holes under the face of the earth by the back butchers of the last year October the seventh.

The rule of law stands at the heart of one of the Sustainable Development Goals over 2030 agenda, a goal which plays a role of the enabler and accelerator of all other sustainable development goals. Its importance stands on the promise of achieving more inclusive, just and peaceful societies without strong institutions, access to justice and respect for human rights, progress on other goals, such as ending poverty, ensuring food security, promoting health and well-being, including fighting climate change, will be limited.

Albania is leaving proof of the radical transformation of good governance practices and mindset. Our public services are now 95% paperless, and the digitalization of access and services has curbed corruption, informality and mistrust in institutions. With its unprecedented justice reform, Albania has invested tremendously over the last few years in achieving SDG 16 as a crucial tool for achieving a sustainable future for social progress, economic prosperity, environmental sustainability and justice, but for a developing country, the struggle for just and fair institutions and good governance is not one that can be won within a year through some reforms or even during a single decade. On the contrary, it is a perpetual effort to transform domestically over making to the most effective practices of providing access to citizens at all levels and instances of government.

We are committed to playing our part and collaborating with the international community to ensure the successful realization of our Albania 2030 vision, building upon the ongoing work during our previous mandate as a non-permanent member of the Security Council, will continue to work with like-minded countries to improve the governance and institutional efficiency for the UN as well as multilateralism and respect for human rights.

As a member of the Human Rights Council, Albania is committed to the universal principles of human rights and dignity in a world where every human being can realize their full potential and live with dignity and respect. A very dear daughter of the Albanians, Saint Mother Teresa, once said ‘I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many rivals. No better saying can mirror today’s need to work together on what is clearly the substance of multilateralism.

Thank you very much.