Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias’ statement following his meeting with his Albanian counterpart, Olta Xhaçka (Tirana, 23.05.2022)

Dear Minister, dear Olta

It is a great pleasure for me to be back in Tirana today, home of Skënderbeu, a hero of our childhood.

Tirana is the first stop on my tour of the Western Balkans ahead of the South-East Europe Cooperation Process Summit to be held in Thessaloniki in two weeks from now, as you also mentioned.

We had the opportunity to review our bilateral relations, international developments and, of course, Albania's European perspective.

And I look forward to a very interesting meeting with Prime Minister Rama, to whom I will convey Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' warm greetings.

Our contacts are quite frequent. Yesterday, Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni arrived here in Tirana to participate in the Greek Cultural Week.

It's been a year and a half since I last came to Tirana. I had the pleasure of being here and announcing, together with Prime Minister Rama, our agreement to refer the delimitation of the EEZ and the continental shelf to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. And I would like to thank you for making mention of this, as well.

The conclusion of this process is of great importance to us. Both countries wish to resolve our differences on the basis of International Law, and in particular the Law of the Sea, the UNCLOS.

In addition, I think that this, apart from its importance for both of us, sends a very important message to all countries: that this is the right, the only, the appropriate way to resolve disputes.

And of course, it is important and we have agreed how we will speed up to conclude the technical part so that we can submit the special agreement to undergo Arbitration to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which I had the opportunity, as I told you, to visit last week.

And indeed, you are right. Our bilateral relations have developed to such an extent that retaining the "state of war" constitutes an anachronism and should be abolished. And I think we agreed on this, that we should work to ensure that the internal procedures for its abolition are concluded as soon as possible.

Of course, I want to be honest with you. This means discussing real issues, that is, issues that the Greek side accepts they exist and not issues that the Greek side considers to be non-existent.

And of course, any attempt to create and discuss non-existent issues will, I fear, have consequences on multiple levels, for example, Greece will have to raise issues that are also related with your own accession process.
In any case, we believe that the Greek National Minority here in Albania, as well as the Albanian community living and working in Greece, constitute a bridge between our two countries. And that is why we should discuss and we have indeed discussed issues that concern both groups, both the Greek National Minority and the Albanian community living in Greece.

I am also well aware of the issue of pensions. It's very important, and there is an ongoing discussion so that we begin the process of resolving an issue which concerns people who have worked and contributed to the economy.
I would also like to say that I had the pleasure today of meeting members of the Greek Ethnic Minority from Himarë this morning, who briefed me on their own problems. These are issues worth discussing with each other as well.
I was also honoured to be received by His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania, with whom I had an extensive discussion.

Regarding our relations, I think it is important that we discussed bilateral trade, investment, how we can promote our economies, as well as how we can further deepen our relations. We discussed issues related to energy, as well.
We also discussed the issue of the war in Ukraine, which Albania is also called upon to address together with the Presidency of the UN Security Council during its term which begins next month. And I would like to congratulate Albania, because as a NATO ally and as a candidate country for EU membership, it adopts all EU decisions. And in fact, I think that Albania can be an example for other countries that do not follow the Albanian policy, that is the full alignment with the shared positions of our European family.

I would also like to thank Albania for supporting our candidacy for the 2025-26 term in the UN Security Council.

Finally, I would like to make a special mention of Albania's European perspective. Greece fully supports the immediate opening of accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia. And it is fully prepared to continue to provide technical assistance and to make every effort to break the deadlock in the negotiations, which, as we know, are not related with Albania.

We believe that the European perspective of the Western Balkans is a one-way street for our region, especially at the current juncture, when the attention on Ukraine allows revisionist powers to try to destabilize our wider region. I think that we should work together to prevent this from happening. So that we can build a European future of peace, stability, prosperity and cooperation in our region.

I would like to thank you for your hospitality today and to say that I hope to welcome you as Minister for the first time in Athens.

Thank you very much.

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