Albania celebrates NATO-membership anniversary

TIRANA, April 4 – Albania marked this week the second anniversary of NATO membership.
On 1 April 2009, Albania, along with Croatia, in a ceremony at the U.S. State Department were handed the documents to join the North Atlantic Alliance.
Albania received the invitation for membership in 2008, at the Bucharest summit, while it sat as a member with full rights at the meeting of senior representatives of NATO summit in Strasbourg-Cologne on Aril 4th, 2009
Prime Minister Sali Berisha held Monday a news conference on that occasion, during which he appreciated the event as an historic landmark for the country
“Today Albania marks the second anniversary of one of the most major events, a red-letter day in the history of our freedom, the country membership in the North Atlantic Alliance. Albania membership in the greatest alliance of freedom of all times is the most major achievement of the Albanians in the field of security and freedom. From its creation and until present-day the North Atlantic Alliance has been a protective shield of freedom of the civilized nations and free world.”
Membership in the Alliance gave the Albanians the certain guarantee of an opportunity for building a future in freedom.
The premier considered NATO membership for Albania as an extraordinary achievement and a result of the reforms undertaken from his government “which transformed Albania into one of the safest countries in the region, Albanian democracy and market economy into a functional democracy and a functional market economy; it was thanks to the far-reaching reforms implemented in the armed forces, the recognized contribution of the Albanian servicemen in all the fronts and areas where the NATO requested the country support.”
He also acknowledged that Albania’s NATO membership was certainly thanks to the strong support of the USA, the great help of the North Atlantic Alliance leading country and all the other member countries.