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Albania has said it would be ready to take part in any future NATO mission in Ukraine as this country is involved in a conflict with Russia. On Tuesday, the US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held a two-hour virtual talk without reaching any agreement but their aides still considered the exchange of views as helpful.
Albania joined NATO in 2009 and has taken part in some peacekeeping operations, the last one in Afghanistan from where its troops left after the US decided to abandon that mission after failure to defeat the Taliban in a two- decade war.
“Albania’s Armed Forces will support any decision the US and NATO take,” Armed Forces Colonel Ardian Lulaj has recently told local media. “If requested, we will join because participation in NATO is not only about receiving but also about giving,” he said. “I assure you that soldiers are always ready.”
While the US and NATO look unlikely to mount a major military response to a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kosovo’s defense ministry said it stood ready to help anyway.
“The US, as our main and irreplaceable strategic ally, knows best the operational capabilities and capacities of the Kosovo Security Forces, and if they assess that our capacities can be engaged, as we have always pledged, we will be ready to be alongside them in any operation in the service of regional peace, security and stability,” Colonel Sefer Isufi, Head of Strategic Communication at Kosovo’s Ministry of Defense told BIRN, noting that the Kosovo force had “actively participated” with NATO in the evacuation of refugees from Afghanistan.
“Wherever the US is, there is Kosovo!” Isufi said.
Kosovo is not a member of NATO, in part because four of the Western alliance’s 30 member states – Romania, Spain, Slovakia and Greece – do not recognize this country. Ukraine also does not recognize Kosovo but the latter pledges its support for that country against Russia for the sake of the US. It is interesting that both Russia and Ukraine are close allies of Serbia.
Montenegro and North Macedonia, which are far more developed than Albania and Kosovo, and are both members of NATO have not responded when asked concerning the situation in Ukraine. / Argumentum.al
