{"id":33165,"date":"2022-03-20T16:33:02","date_gmt":"2022-03-20T15:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/?p=33165"},"modified":"2022-03-20T16:36:40","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T15:36:40","slug":"nato-will-be-launching-a-balkan-airbase-in-kucove-by-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/nato-will-be-launching-a-balkan-airbase-in-kucove-by-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"NATO will launch a Balkan Airbase in Albania by 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NATO will be establishing a Balkan airbase in Kucova by 2023.<\/p>\n<p>50 million euros are estimated to go into this new military investment that will be paid for by both NATO and the Albanian government.<\/p>\n<p>This will be NATO\u2019s first airbase in the Western Balkans and it is projected to include a series of modern warfare airplanes.<\/p>\n<p>Euronews reported that work on this airbase started back in January. The project seeks to turn Kucove\u2019s existing airbase into a modern operational center.<\/p>\n<p>This former Soviet-era airbase was built back in the 1950s when the country was under Enver Hoxha\u2019s rule.<\/p>\n<p>Viktor Vangjeli served here for 27 years, where he flew MiG-19s before retiring back in the 90s.<\/p>\n<p>The 83-year-old said that transforming Kucova into a modern NATO center will be beneficial for the entire new generation of Albanian pilots who will be trained here.<\/p>\n<p>Albania has been a NATO member since 2009 and is in the process of gaining EU membership.<\/p>\n<p><strong>YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"title-post\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/balkans\/2022\/03\/18\/russia-warns-of-retaliation-if-bosnia-joins-nato\/\">Russia warns of retaliation if Bosnia joins NATO<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"title-post\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/europe\/2022\/03\/04\/updates-from-ukraine-march-4-nato-leader-call-on-russia-to-cease-fire\/\">Updates from Ukraine, March 4: NATO leaders call on Russia to cease fire<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"title-post\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/balkans\/2022\/02\/28\/vucic-reacts-to-kosovos-request-to-speed-of-accession-to-nato\/\">Vucic reacts to Kosovo\u2019s request to speed up accession to NATO<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<div class=\"spot-im-replies-count\" data-post-id=\"eneu33086\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NATO will be establishing a Balkan airbase in Kucova by 2023. 50 million euros are estimated to go into this new military investment that will be paid for by both NATO and the Albanian government. This will be NATO\u2019s first airbase in the Western Balkans and it is projected to include a series of modern [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":33166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153],"tags":[150,151],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NATO will launch a Balkan Airbase in Albania by 2023 - Euronews Albania<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/nato-will-be-launching-a-balkan-airbase-in-kucove-by-2023\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NATO will launch a Balkan Airbase in Albania by 2023 - Euronews Albania\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NATO will be establishing a Balkan airbase in Kucova by 2023. 50 million euros are estimated to go into this new military investment that will be paid for by both NATO and the Albanian government. This will be NATO\u2019s first airbase in the Western Balkans and it is projected to include a series of modern [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/nato-will-be-launching-a-balkan-airbase-in-kucove-by-2023\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Euronews Albania\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/euronews.al\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-20T15:33:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-20T15:36:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/baza-e-natos.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"889\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"448\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nen Si\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@euronewsalbania\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@euronewsalbania\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nen Si\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/nato-will-be-launching-a-balkan-airbase-in-kucove-by-2023\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/nato-will-be-launching-a-balkan-airbase-in-kucove-by-2023\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nen Si\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/444d280f35e047949b7f0bc08093608f\"},\"headline\":\"NATO will launch a Balkan Airbase in Albania by 2023\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-20T15:33:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-20T15:36:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/nato-will-be-launching-a-balkan-airbase-in-kucove-by-2023\/\"},\"wordCount\":205,\"commentCount\":14,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/nato-will-be-launching-a-balkan-airbase-in-kucove-by-2023\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/baza-e-natos.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Kryesor 1\",\"Kryesoret\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Albania\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/nato-will-be-launching-a-balkan-airbase-in-kucove-by-2023\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/nato-will-be-launching-a-balkan-airbase-in-kucove-by-2023\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/nato-will-be-launching-a-balkan-airbase-in-kucove-by-2023\/\",\"name\":\"NATO will launch a Balkan Airbase in Albania by 2023 - 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