WASHINGTON, April 20 – Albania and the United States have signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement, aiming to work together to fighting terrorism in the Middle East related networks abroad, including in the Western Balkans region.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the Strategic Partnership Agreement will allow the two countries to intensify counter-terrorism cooperation and enhance security in the Balkan region against the ISIL.
He added the U.S. wants Albania to joint the European Union as soon as possible.
“We support [Albania’s] accession to the EU as soon as possible, and they’re on the road to do the things necessary for that accession,” Kerry said.
Victoria Nuland, U.S. assistant state secretary on European and Eurasian affairs, considered the agreement as a “strategic partnership … to enhance the two countries’ counter-terrorism efforts.”
The signing took place during a visit of Albanian Foreign Minister Ditmir Bushati in Washington D.C., where he met with his host counterpart, Kerry, and also other senior U.S. officials.
Kerry said Albania’s cooperation has been essential for the overall efforts to fight ISIL, also known as ISIS or IS.
A U.S.-led coalition began carrying out airstrikes against ISIL targets in Iraq in August 2014, and expanded the air campaign to Syria in September 2014. Albania has been supporting the coalition by sending weapons and ammunition to the Kurdish forces in Iraq.
“Albania has made so much progress since we re-established relations in 1991, and the U.S. has been very proud to support Albania on its journey first to NATO in 2009, and now as it seeks to accede to the EU,” Nukand said. “In Albania as a NATO ally, the United States knows that it has a partner wherever there is trouble in the world, and we appreciate that enormously.”
The declaration that both countries signed aim at deepening and broadening their strong and growing partnership across a very broad spectrum of mutual priorities, including security, rule of law, energy, and people-to-people exchanges.
“Our ties also run to people and family. Albanian Americans have made marks in American science, innovation and culture from Ferid Murad, the 1998 Nobel Prize winner for medicine, to the Blues Brother, John Belushi,” Nuland added.
