Albanian leaders so happy about NATO membership

TIRANA, March 31 – Albania’s NATO membership has been so highly celebrated by the top leaders in the country.
Speaking to an international news agency Prime Minister Sali Berisha said that Albania, the former communist and most isolated country in Eastern Europe, can safely build its future as a member of the Northern Alliance.
Albania, together with Croatia, expect to become new NATO members at is Strasbourg-Kehl summit later this week. Polls have shown more than 94 percent approval to the membership among Albanians.
“Following its independence NATO membership is the most important act in Albania’s history _ it means a safe freedom,” the premier said in an interview to The Associated Press Tuesday.
President Bamir Topi considered April 4 “a historic day for the Albanian people … crowned with the dream and deep aspiration … a very special issue for the Albanian politics” following the fall of communism in 1990.
“Albania enters into such relations with a missing experience due to its long isolation during the dictatorship that cannot be compared to those of the former communist countries,” he said
“This date will be marked in Albania’s history as a major turning point, as the moment of Albania’s return into its deserved place, as a reliable ally of democracy, development, well being and the fight against international terrorism,” he said.
The strong and powerful support from the United States and other allies, and the deep reforms of the Albanian government were the two factors that determined Albania’s NATO membership on April 4, 2009.
“The harmonization of these two factors made possible turning into a reality such a project that has been a dream to Albanians,” said Berisha.
Albania has been part of the Warsaw Treaty until 1968 when it left the treaty after the invasion of Prague and remained a solitary communist country.
Post-communist Albania was among the first former communist countries to apply for NATO membership, first signing the Partnership for Peace programme, then the Adriatic 3 Charter together with Croatia and Macedonia, before getting the invitation at last year’s summit in Bucharest, Romania.
“NATO membership also means a much greater responsibility … to consolidate democracy and the market economy (and) further reforms to the military to meet the required duties,” he said.
Topi also acknowledged that the “process of integration is not over with the NATO membership. It is a long complex and difficult process asking for much political commitment, rational use of the human, material and financial resources,” he said.
Albania has small army units in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Chad. Last December it pulled out its 218 troops out of Iraq.
Albania is ready to add another company to the international mission in Afghanistan, according to the premier, adding the government was determined to keep a two percent of the GDP expenses for the military in efforts to modernize its army.
Next year Albania is expected to have a totally professional army, which it has reduced to some 14,000 troops from more than 40,000 after the fall of communism in 1990.
The integration processes into NATO and the European Union have been the Archimedes’ lever to quickly get out of the former communist consequences.
“NATO has not got tired of enlargement due to the strong leadership from the United States. To all the nations, but especially to small nations like Albania, NATO is security in the strategic sense,” said Berisha.
“Normalizing the relations among the regional countries remains Albania’s much-welcomed and irreplaceable contribution for the years to come, a contribution that is to improve the good neighborhood and cooperation, will increase security in the region,” said Topi. “Everybody should understand that a NATO member country asks for a stable economy which produces a stable political system,” said Topi.
The world could hardly cope with the global financial crisis not suffering any social and political dangerous consequence without such alliances as NATO and the EU.
“There is no problem of security due to NATO and the very presence of NATO and the EU make possible to deal with such a crisis in a fast, determined and global way,” said Berisha.