As Romanian prime minister visits Tirana, the two countries look to strengthen ties
TIRANA, March 18 – Albania and Romania have pledged to further deepen their ties, as Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta visited Tirana to meet with his host counterpart Edi Rama.
Besides bilateral relations, Kosovo was also on top of the agenda for the Albanian prime minister, as Romania is among the five EU member countries that still have not recognized Kosovo as an independent state.
Ponta said in the news conference with Rama that there was no similarity between the situations in Kosovo and Crimea, a view shared by his Albanian counterpart.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has earlier drawn a parallel between Crimea and Kosovo to justify the Russian annexation of the majority ethnic Russian territory of Ukraine. Kosovo, with its 90 percent ethnic Albanian population, declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
“I think there are fundamental differences, and I think that it is extremely important to have a very clear position of all the European Union countries on what is, indisputably, a crisis at European level, which can draw us back to the past, to a cold war. So things are not similar, and from our point of view, I think we should support Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia along their democratic path toward European integration,” said Ponta.
Rama agreed. “The parallel is completely unfounded. On the contrary, the Russian intervention is against the course of history,” Rama said.
Pushed by Albanian journalists on whether Romania would recognize Kosovo as independent soon, Ponta said that Serbia and Kosovo being European Union members represented the best solution to the issues.
“It is a topic that stirs controversy in Romania. … The government, on all occasions, has supported the development of Kosovo institutions and from the viewpoint of the Government of Romania, Serbia and Kosovo as members of the European Union will, in fact, represent the best solution. And, in fact, this is a future for the entire region,” said Ponta.
He added that Romania backs Albania gaining EU candidate status in June
“Romania has been a European Union member for seven years and our position has been constant, we back all countries in this region to be integrated into the European Union,” said Ponta.
He admitted there are European countries saying Albania is not yet fully ready to join the bloc, but he stressed such a thing had been said about Romania for a long time before the country joined.
Albanian Foreign Minister Ditmir Bushati and his Romanian counterpart Titus Corlatean stressed the need to intensify political dialogue and relations between the two countries in the future.
Bushati said that the advancement of relations with the regional countries in all areas of cooperation constitutes an important element of Albania’s regional policy. He also pointed to the deepening of economic cooperation and intensification of political dialogue with Romania.
Corlatean said that his visit to Albania is an indicator of the strengthening of relations between the two countries and activation of political dialogue, which serve to a positive regional approach. He said that Romania will continue to support Albania in its path toward European integration.
During a business forum on economic relations between Albania and Romania held in Tirana, Albanian Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Entrepreneurship Arben Ahmetaj said that Albania should be regarded as an open market for implementation of significant regional projects in the interest of overall economic development.
Ahmetaj said he appreciated the trade relations between the two countries pointing out that “Romanian investments are important for Albania and are increasing in the last couple of years.”
