TIRANA TIMES
TIRANA, May 5 – Albanian Foreign Minister Ilir Meta attended on Wednesday the 12th Council of Ministers of the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative, AII, held in Ancona, Italy.
The Council was chaired by Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.
The Council, which brought together the foreign ministers of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Greece, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Italy, is aimed at preparing an EU strategy for the Adriatic-Ionian macro-region, and adopting a Ministerial Declaration and other related documents.
AII was launched in 2000 at the Ancona Conference on “Development and Security in the Adriatic and the Ionian Seas”, when the foreign ministers of six coastal countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy and Slovenia) adopted the Ancona Declaration.
The main goals of the initiative include the strengthening of regional cooperation among Adriatic coastal countries, fostering common solutions to common problems with focus on security and stability, as well as the environmental protection of the Adriatic and Ionian Seas.
At this year’s meeting in Ancona, Montenegro is set to take over the one-year presidency of the regional initiative.
