Albania would accept US missile shield

TIRANA, Feb 23 – Albania would be ready to deploy elements of the US missile shield on its territory if asked, according to Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha quoted by the Russian news agency Itar-Tass.
Albania has not received any such request from the US, but the country was ready to accept it, Berisha said when asked to comment on media reports that Washington might choose Albania over Poland and the Czech Republic, the countries now meant to host elements of the missile shield.
“As a NATO member country and as a strategic partner of the US, Albania will say yes to the US should they ask us,” Berisha said.
Albania expects to become a full NATO member in April. It received its membership invitation last year and then also signed the membership protocols which were ratified by all NATO member countries, considered as the last step ahead of full membership.
“It would be Albania’s contribution to maintaining the world’s security,” Berisha said.
In August 2008, the US and Poland formally signed an agreement to deploy 10 missile defense interceptors on Polish territory, part of a larger system that would include a radar system in the Czech Republic.
Russia has always been against the US anti-missile shield plan, threatening to deploy a short-range missile system in its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, which borders Poland, in response.