NATO senior official visits Albania

TIRANA, Feb. 27 – Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu met Tuesday in Tirana with deputy commander of the NATO Joint Force Command in Naples, Italy, Marshall Dusty Miller, accompanied by NATO senior commander based in Albania Gen. Georgios Mouroutsos. The purpose of the visit was to discuss on the OCC evaluation process development of the Albanian armed forces capabilities. Mediu described how the country’s armed forces are working to reform themselves toward getting NATO full membership. Albania has close ties with Naples command. Albania has peacekeeping armed forces in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. It has also started negotiations to send troops in Lebanon. At the same time Albania plans to increase its presence in Afghanistan. Albania hopes to get full NATO membership by 2008.