Rama calls on NATO to recognize Kosovo

TIRANA, Sept. 9 – Prime Minister Edi Rama said winning over recognition of Kosovo’s independence by all NATO member countries’ was a key issue on which Albania focused at the NATO summit in Wales, held last week.
The Albanian prime minister said during the summit that Albania was a serious investor of the peace and multi-ethnic and inter-religious co-existence in the region and asked for more attention on the part of the member countries on the region.
“I called on all the member countries, those countries that have not recognized Kosovo yet as an independent state, to do so because it is an issue of strategic importance and of extraordinary major geo-political weight for Europe,” he said upon his return to Albania.
Rama said that would complete the last step of recognitions for Kosovo from the last few remaining European Union member countries that have yet to recognize Prishtina’s independence.
Tirana also said that it would like other Balkan countries that are not yet members of the alliance to be allowed to join should they seek to. Rama said Montenegro should get a full member invitation next year and “all should work with much perseverance and intensity to open the way for Macedonia, too.”
Skopje’s membership has been vetoed by Athens over the country’s name dispute.