Victoria Nuland visits Tirana
12/07/2014

The Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs at the United States Department of State, Victoria Nuland, is attending an official visit in Albania. Her last contact with our country was in September 26th, 2013, with Prime Minister Edi Rama who had been on duty for just two weeks.

Unofficial sources say that this was the moment when for the first time, on behalf of the US government, Nuland asked the help of Albania for destroying the chemical arsenal of Syria.

10 months later, the high-rank official of Uashington held a visit in Tirana, as part of a Balkan tour, during which she will discuss important matters of our nations, the stable partnership and constant alliance.

The first meeting of Mrs.Nuland with the Albanian President lasted 30 minutes. Although the meeting ended at 17:00, the Presidency has not published a press release yet.

During her meeting with Parliament Speaker Ilir Meta, Mrs.Nuland congratulated him for the candidate status and underlined that the US will stay even closer to Albania for progressing with all the reforms that are necessary for the country’s progress towards the EU perspective.

As for the recent developments in the region, Meta expressed his appreciation for the role of the US in reinforcing democracy in Kosovo, and underlined that as regards the recent concerns in Macedonia, Albania supports constructive dialogue between the parties and the implementation of the Ochrid Agreement.

Nuland met with the Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, who updated the US official on the reforms undertaken by the government and thanked the USA for the continuing support on the Albanian people in the region and in the Euro-Atlantic path.

Before meeting with Rama, the US official attended a meeting with the DP leader, Lulzim Basha. After the official meeting, Nuland had a tete-a-tete meeting with Basha.

Basha has presented a long list of concerns from the opposition, such as trying to take independent institutions, not implementing the court orders, massive firing of people from the public administration, against the civil employee law, including criminal elements in the state structures, and blocking the local government by going against the citizens’ interests.

Basha underlined that for consolidating the judiciary they need to fight the corruption cases by increasing the independence of the justice system. After the meeting that continued for 45 minutes, Basha declared that the Prime Minister has established a violence structure with criminal elements for attacking the opposition and its free speech.