TIRANA, November 24 – President of the Republic Bajram Begaj held a meeting on Friday with Prime Minister Edi Rama, Minister of Defense Niko Peleshi and Chief of General Staff Major General Arben Kingji.
The presidency announced that this meeting was held to familiarize with the conclusions of the informal summit that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg held in Skopje. “This was the first time that a high-level meeting of NATO took place in this format and in a country in the Western Balkans. Albania is today ready to offer the organization of such summits in Tirana,” the announcement of the Presidency states.
“The region of the Western Balkans is of strategic importance for the Euro-Atlantic alliance. The fragile security situation in the north of Kosovo, the lack of progress in the dialogue for the normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo, the threats of separation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as the influence of Russia and Iran to undermine democracy through hybrid and cyber threats are reasons to worry,” the announcement said.
Albania is an important factor of peace and stability in the region and an important ally for NATO.
At the NATO summit that will take place next year in Washington, important decisions will be made in terms of adapting and strengthening defensive and preventive capacities.
In this context, according to the Presidency, Friday’s meeting discussed the harmonization of national defense plans with those of NATO, as well as the increase in the contribution of troops if such a thing is required by NATO. /argumentum.al
