Prime Minister Edi Rama reacted to Albania’s absence at the informal meeting in Athens, held a day before at the initiative of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Through a long post on Twitter, Rama states that, “he hopes that the dinner was not used to send Albania a contradictory message”.
“I am happy Kyriakos took the initiative to break bread with the highly relevant leaders and discuss the European future of the Balkans against the backdrop of the Russian aggression. The region needs Greece to be more involved in our common path. I have always told him or other Greek friends, including saying it publicly in several occasions, that I sincerely believe their country has a natural role to play in the Balkans given its EU profile and experience. I very much hope the meeting was productive and of course, I would have rather not seen the dinner used to send to Albania a contradictory message vis-à-vis the much more ambitious purpose of the initiative and I hope this unfortunate fact did not confuse the honourable guests. As far as I’m concerned, talking, communicating, arguing with friends, allies, partners and neighbours first and foremost, is the very essence of international politics and trying, always trying, to put yourself in the other’s shoes is a must. Even more so when things seem to go wrong,” says Rama.
In his reaction, Rama draws attention to the fact that in October Albania will preside over the Berlin Process Summit, which will be organized in Tirana, where, as he says, his counterpart Mitsotakis will be invited, and not the president of Greece.
“Next october Albania will preside this year’s Berlin Process Summit in Tirana. My dear friend and highly respected collegue in Athens has of course been invited to participate and I could never imagine inviting in his place the Greek President, for whom I also have the greatest respect. I understand the pressure from third parties, eager to exploit any occasion to make a mountain out of a molehill. But we all have much greater challenges lying ahead, there are real mountains to climb. What should unite us in such turbulent times for the sake of our people, our countries, our region, our Europe is larger than what divides us. Too much is at stake globally, for us to become hostage of tribal domestic politics.”, writes Rama, among other things.
