TIRANA, Dec. 12 – The trajectory of the Polish-Albanian relations through time has been one of the most interesting with a rich history in the past and an even richer potential for the future, Deputy Director of the Albanian Institute for International Studies (AIIS), Alba Cela, said in the opening statement of the seminar: “Talking Polish-Albanian Relations: Stocktaking and evaluating the potential for the future.”
The event gathered diplomats, members of the Poland-Albania Friendship Association and experts to discuss the past, present and future of the relations.
In his opening address, His Excellency the Polish Ambassador Karol Bachura touched upon the fact that relations were already 80 years old. He made an expose of the developments of the last years mentioning the visits of both sides at the highest political level, highlighting those of the Prime Ministers, Foreign Affairs Ministers and Presidents of the two countries since 2016 onwards.
The Ambassador also mentioned the reestablishment of the military attaché presence in Tiran as a signal that security and defense cooperation will be strengthened more in the near future.
In the end the Ambassador concluded with the excellent news that the national carrier of Poland is expected to launch a regular direct flight between Warsaw and Tirana as early as the middle of next year. This will intensify and facilitate exchanges and connections even further. “We view Albania as a very valuable NATO ally,” said the Ambassador in this regard. Ambassador Bachura also presented the various initiatives led by the embassy to promote Polish culture in Albania in the field of literature film and music such as the Polish film week.
Marta Szpala, senior fellow from the Centre from Eastern Studies, a governmental think tank associated with the office of the Prime Minister of Poland focused on European integration as a platform where Polish support and assistance throughout the years but particularly in the last period have been very strong. Szpala said that Poland, being a member of the Tallin group within the EU supports Albania and the entire region in the enlargement question. Szpala mentioned some of the instruments for technical assistance such as the Tirana conference for raising the capacities of the public administration and facilitating their networking as well as the Enlargement Academy.
Szpala touched upon the Berlin process and the chairmanship of Poland which was culminated with the hosting of the Poznan Summit. This according to Szpala was a real game changer that brought even more attention and resources in Polish foreign policy towards Albania and the Western Balkans region. According to her, looking into the future the fields where the potential needs to be sued are security cooperation, economic exchanges as well as the social potential.
AIIS senior researcher Dr Ledion Krisafi presented some of the findings of a research study carried by AIIS where he focused on the under exploited economic potential. He said that despite the numerous economic agreements between Albania and Poland since the 90s and the business forum organized in Tirana in 2017, the trade between the two countries is still very low. However, the trade has increased in the last years, going from 48.4 million euros in 2014 to 73.4 million euros in 2018. Albanian exports to Poland have increased from 7.7 million euros in 2014 to 17.1 million euros in 2018. He said that compared with the other Balkan countries, these figures are still very low. For example Poland’s trade with Serbia stands at 1.2 billion euros, and even compared with North Macedonia or Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania’s trade with Poland is lower.
Dr Krisafi said that there is a lot of potential to increase the trade between the two countries, especially in the areas of energy and mechanical devices from Poland and agriculture products, minerals and oil from Albania. At the moment Albania exports mostly footwear, fish and textiles, while imports from Poland mostly tobacco and sugar. Also Polish investments in Albania are very low. In 2017 the stock of Polish investments was just 600 thousand euros, while in 2016 there was no Polish investment at all in Albania. He said that Polish economy is the most successful from the former communist countries and after three decades of continuous economic growth, Poland now is trying to increase its economic presence in different areas, including the Balkans.
Leonard Zissi from the Polish-Albania friendship Association presented some interesting historical facts and curiosities about the exchanges between Poland and Albania during various times and under various political regimes. He ended on a very optimistic note of predicting that relation will improve and deepen in the future since they are based on shared values and an accumulated human interaction through centuries.
