Greek FM to visit Tirana in an attempt to be ‘friendlier’ towards Albania

TIRANA, May 21 – Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias will pay an official visit to Tirana on Monday, starting his stay in Albania with a meeting with Archbishop Anastasios to be followed by a meeting with Prime Minister Edi Rama and Foreign Minister Olta Xhacka.

In all likelihood, the Greek side received the US encouragement after Mitsotakis’s visit to the US a few days ago to launch a friendly “offensive” towards the Western Balkan countries, precisely to reduce Russia’s influence and Serbia’s hegemony in the region. Part of this is the support of the Albanian factor, which is already a decision-maker in North Macedonia, and in Montenegro, in addition to Kosovo and Albania. This is considered crucial, said local media on Saturday.

Also, it is reported that Dendias brings plans for joint energy and infrastructure projects as well as support of Albania in a series of important regional economic initiatives and projects. It is noteworthy that this time, Athens does not have the resolution of the sea issue on the top of its agenda.

Dendias has not included on his agenda any contact with President Ilir Meta and his political allies, thus giving a clear message that Athens does not forget the rejection that the president made of the discussions between the two countries a few years ago, despite the fact that Greece was then ruled by Alexis Tsipras.

It is also reported that another issue that the Greeks are already very interested in resolving as soon as possible, and even now seem to be in a hurry to complete within Mitsotakis’s current term, is the abolition of the law of war between the two countries. This is a paradoxical situation that keeps bilateral relations deadlocked, which for Athens has already turned into a boomerang.

The formula had been found for a long time, but it seems that the will of Greek politics was lacking, which is now ready to “give in”.

Discussions on the pension agreement for Albanian migrants in Greece have advanced, and it seems that they will end in the not too distant future, which will put an end to the massive persecution of Albanian insured persons in Greek pension schemes who did not receive a pension, if they did not complete full working days in the neighboring country. In addition what Athens has already decided is the recognition of Kosovo by Greece, a decision that will probably be announced within this year.

Anyway, analysts have warned that concrete actions should reveal how sincere it is because of the course of the relations between the two countries; it is easy to see that Greece has not kept its promises. The most obvious case is the War Law which despite tons of promises by Greek politicians of different colors has not been abolished yet.  /Argumentum.al