Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said Monday that Montenegro’s NATO membership is a historic achievement for Balkans.
Speaking at a joint news conference with his Montenegrin counterpart, Dusko Markovic, in Podgorica, Rama said that Montenegro, will become the 29th NATO member, and Albania has done everything possible to support it.
“It is a historic achievement not only for Montenegro but also for our region. With the accession of Montenegro in NATO, the entire coastline of the Ionian and Adriatic side becomes a NATO area,” Rama said.
Despite the opposition of pro-Russian political parties, Montenegro is set to become the 29th member of NATO in the near future.
The small Balkan country with a population of less a million seems to be at the frontline of the west-Russia clash in region. Back in October 2016, the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Milo Dukanovic, accused Russia of organizing a coup attempt in a bid to block Montenegro’s NATO membership. The failed coup was organized on Election Day.
Albania, as a NATO member since 2009, fully supports Montenegro’s NATO bid. On the other side, the two neighboring countries with excellent relationship are fully committed to strengthen bilateral cooperation and stability in the region.
The two Prime Ministers agreed to hold a joint meeting of the two governments in Shkoder in October. Rama said that is “the beginning of a new relationship cycle and a new effort to intensify relations in order to improve the economic and social life of our citizens, by using our common potentials which are great, and especially by giving the cross-border area a greater common attention in view of economic growth and of an improved quality of social life.”/tvklan.al
