TIRANA – US President Donald Trump urges Albania to exit the Chinese led 17+1 initiative encompassing many countries in the region and in SEE and recently even Greece. It also urged Albanian PM Edi Rama to consider moving the Albanian embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Both suggestions were made in an official letter from the White House received Thursday evening.
Albanian prime minister posted the letter in his Facebook page on Friday. In the text the U.S. President welcomed Albania’s regional role in exposing “China’s malign influence” and supporting Washington’s policy on Israel.
Trump also hailed “Albania’s leadership in the Balkans region and throughout Europe in exposing China’s malign influence, human rights abuses, and predatory lending practices.”
The United States grumble on China’s estimated $1 trillion Belt and Road initiative encompasses about 60 countries through Asia and Africa to Europe fearing that could give China more political influence in Europe and the West. American officials have told countries considering Belt and Road projects to look closely at Beijing’s motives and warned about debt.
Albania has not been part of the project so far, though it is part of the 17+1 group in Europe meeting regularly every year somewhere in the continent. Trump also said that U.S. and Albania may soon sign a memorandum of understanding “on 5G security that paves the way for others in the Balkans to do the same.”
Trump thanked Tirana for supporting the recently signed economic normalization agreement between Serbia and Kosovo and its strong endorsement of the Abraham Accords” on peace in the Middle East.
Trump urged Tirana, too, to join Washington and other European countries “in moving your embassy to Jerusalem.” Tirana has not said it will move its embassy to Jerusalem while it is in the first steps of launching full membership negotiations with the European Union. The Union is against such a U.S. move.
Tirana and Washington re-established diplomatic ties in 1991 after the fall of the communist regime in the tiny western Balkan country. Former U.S. President George W. Bush received a hero’s welcome when he visited Albania in 2007, the first and only ever visit by a U.S. president to the tiny Western Balkan country.
