Summit for Ukraine in Tirana/ What Zelensky delivered to Rama

2024-02-28 11:43:00, Politikë CNA

Summit for Ukraine in Tirana/ What Zelensky delivered to Rama

Volodymyr Zelensky and EdI Rama

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, started his visit to Tirana today, with a meeting with the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Prime Minister Rama and President Zelensky signed the Treaty of friendship and cooperation between Albania and Ukraine, which aims to consolidate the friendship between the two countries and peoples, through the expansion and strengthening of cooperation in various fields of mutual interest.

Before signing the signatures, the President of Ukraine handed over the "Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise" to Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama today, for "extraordinary personal contribution to the strengthening of interstate cooperation, support of state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and popularization of state of Ukraine in the world".

The meeting precedes the "Ukraine - Southeast Europe" summit, organized by the Albanian government in cooperation with Kiev. "We will discuss our common path towards the Euro-Atlantic goal. I will propose supporting Ukraine's efforts to achieve just and lasting peace, as well as organizing the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland," President Zelensky wrote in a post on the X social network.

For Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, today's summit will be "a meeting of solidarity and further engagement of our democracies against Russian aggression", Mr. Rama wrote on Facebook, expressing his pride that his country "today hosts the summit of South-Eastern Europe, the leader of the heroic Ukrainian resistance, President Zelensky".

For his part, the Ukrainian president called the Albanian prime minister "a steadfast friend of Ukraine", with whom "we will discuss defense and political cooperation, support for the Peace Formula and security agreements. Albania is one of the countries that signed the Vilnius Declaration of the G7, which we greatly appreciate".

Earlier, a meeting was held between the foreign ministers of the two countries. "Albania supports the 10-Point Plan of President Zelensky, as the most realistic possibility to end the war and achieve a lasting peace. Together with other actors and countries, we have already committed to cooperation in the realization of Point 5, which is about "Restoring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine", as one of the most immediate objectives of ending the war", declared after Albanian Minister Igli Hasani meeting.

Albania is among the first countries that supported Ukraine without reservations and committed to contribute directly with aid. Minister Hasani said that even during today's meeting, "we talked about the economic and financial aid that Albania can offer to cope with the situation in Ukraine, but also about its reconstruction, which we hope will happen as soon as possible, without any delay".

Within the next few months, as announced by the Albanian Foreign Minister, the Albanian embassy is expected to open in Kiev. "We are in the stage of technical preparations", explained Mr. Hasani.

For his part, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kuleba thanked Albania for the support provided in many directions, focusing especially on its role during the two-year mandate as a temporary member of the UN Security Council. Albania is also valued by Kiev as a member of NATO, where Ukraine seeks to become a member. "Our expectations are that, among other things, one of the results of the Washington summit will be a step forward towards Ukraine's membership, which will finally make this part of Europe safer", said Minister Kuleba. /VOA