TIRANA, April 18 – Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri and FBI director James Comey have signed a cooperation agreement regarding the exchange of information and cooperation in the framework of the fight against terrorism and organized crime.
The agreement was signed last week in Washington D.C during a visit of an Albanian delegation headed by Prime Minister Edi Rama, after meeting at the White House with U.S. President Barack Obama and the Vice-president Joe Biden.
“The aim of this bilateral agreement is exchanging data as part of the global war on terror, which aims to strengthen mutual efforts against terrorists, while the agreement also foresees that parties also establish points of contact,” the Interior Ministry informed through a statement.
For the Albanian side, the point of contact will be the Anti-terror Department in the State Police, whereas for the Americans it will be the Terrorism Screening Center (TSC).
After the signing of the agreement it is expected that the FBI will help the State Police to train Albanian police agents in the FBI’s academy, help train Albanian prosecutors as well as the improvement of investigation infrastructure, according the press release.
Albania is soon expected to set up a structure tasked with fighting corruption at high levels modeled after the American FBI. The National Bureau of Investigations is no longer going to be placed under the authority of the Interior Ministry as initially proposed, but is expected to be placed under the jurisdiction of the Special Anticorruption Unit instead, also to be set up as part of the pending justice reform.
The international community especially the United States and the European Union have been the main promoters of the reform.
The adoption of the reform is seen as key to Albania’s European integration path and several high E.U officials have stated that without the reform it will be impossible for the country to open accession talks.
