Bush says Albania to work more on NATO membership

TIRANA, June 1 – U.S. President George W. Bush gave an interview to the Albanian Vizion + private television station ahead of his June 10 visit to Tirana, the first ever by an American president to Albania.
Bush said that his visit would serve “to make sure the Albanian people understand that America knows that you exist and that you’re making difficult choices to cement your free society.”
“I’m coming as a lover of liberty to a land where people are realizing the benefits of liberty,” said Bush in the interview broadcast over weekend.
The U.S. president was also impressed by the Albanian leaders’ commitment to “common values with the United States, that they believe in certain freedoms, and that the Albanian people ought to be given a chance to live in a free society.”
The president said he was proud of the hard work that Albanians were doing.
“I’m particularly grateful to be the first sitting President ever to come to Albania.”
Bush said he had heard or knew of Albania’s “beautiful coastline, interesting history, Muslim people who can live at peace.”
On Albania’s integration process into NATO, which the country hopes to join next year, Bush said that “there’s a certain map that has to be followed, a certain way forward; there are certain obligations that have to be met.”
“My only advice is, work as hard as you possibly can to achieve the different benchmarks that would cause the NATO members to accept Albania.”
Kosova was another topic of interest.
Bush clarified what he had talked about with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week and his government’s stand on Kosova.
“My position is that we support the Ahtisaari plan, and that’s the instructions that I have given to Secretary of State Rice, who totally agrees with me. And those will be the instructions we give to the United Nations.
Bush said he told Putin that “we don’t want to נwe would hope to avoid a major conflict in the area, but we feel strongly that the Ahtisaari plan is the right way to go, it’s the right way to move forward. And that’s the U.S. position.”
On the talks at the U.N. Security Council on Kosova Bush said that “we’re working to try to convince all members of the U.N. Security Council to support the Ahtisaari plan, and we’re out making our case as to why it makes sense and why this will נyield peace. We would also hope that the EU would continue and NATO would continue to work with Serbia, to give them a way forward, as well, that there be an opportunity for them to become participants in some of the European institutions, and in this case, in NATO’s case, an opportunity, perhaps, to join NATO and have U.S. as a partner.”