“Albania is a great country, to visit or to live in. I have noticed that Swedish tourists love Albania. Last year, we had thirteen percent increase of Swedish tourists, showing how Swedish people are getting interested in Albania. I am sure that the numbers will continue to rise,” said Ambassador Hastad
By Genc Mlloja
Senior Diplomatic Editor
The celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Albanian- Swedish diplomatic relations this year is bringing to light revelations that the bilateral ties between these two countries were far older dating back to the early years of the third decade of the 20th century after the First World War.
“The very first diplomatic relations between Sweden and Albania were established already in the 20s and 30s. In 1922 after the recognition of Albania and in 1923 we had the first Albanian diplomatic presence in Sweden,” the Swedish Ambassador to Tirana, Elsa Hastad has said.
Speaking to an audience of Albanian scholars, representatives of diplomatic corps, journalists in a forum organized by the Albanian Institute for International Studieson the occasion of this anniversary the Ambassador, who was welcomed by Ms. Alba Cela, Deputy Director and Head of the European program,unveiled the course of how the Albanian- Swedish relationship developed from the 20s up to now, dwelling at length on the restart of these interrupted ties 50 years ago.
The restart- why?
The story behind the reasons which drew the attention of Sweden towards Albania in 1970s when this tiny Balkan country had self isolated itself having few links with the outside world mainly in commercial exchanges and the break-up with China in the middle of 1970s, which heralded hard economic times and a tighter rule of the communist regime, dates back to 1969. Also, the diplomatic activity of Albania was very limited and although it had formal diplomatic relations with more than 100 countries there was a small presence of diplomatic missions in Tirana.
“I found the reason in an old document from 25 June 1969 where our Ministry of Foreign Affairs assigned to the Swedish Ambassador in Paris to contact the Albanian Ambassador in Paris to start the process of opening the Embassy. The main argument was that Sweden had noted an increase of Swedish tourist going to Albania,” said Ambassador Hastad. “But what was it that made the Swedes discover Albania in 1960s? In the beginning, it was a lot about of political exchange and political tourism. Swedes were interested in the communism. Not everyone – but some.”
In Albania, the communist regime led by late leader Enver Hoxha had come to power after the end of the Second World War when the country was liberated from the Nazi occupation on November 29, 1944.
“Sweden was also a very different country from the Sweden we know today,” said Mrs. Hastad who recalled that her country was characterized by protests among youth and left-wing activists and it became a symbolic century for these protests. “Many workers went on strikes about work environment and human value. Sweden had a lot of organizations and politically active people. Many became interested in the communist regime.”
According to her, some of them traveled to Albania under restricted forms and they were intellectuals, writers, journalists, even ordinary people, who were socialists themselves and were interested in other countries of the world where they had communism or socialism. “They were travelling to the Soviet Union, Cambodia, other communist countries – but also to Albania,” she said.
After the break up with former Soviet Union in the 60s the Party of Labor of Albania (PLA), which ruled a country where no other political parties existed, had intensive connections with so called Marxist –Leninist parties or groups some of which had been formed even in Nordic countries, including Sweden.
It was Albania which opened first its Embassy in Stockholm in 1972 adding to a limited number of its residential embassies abroad which was a sign of the interest of official Tirana in that Nordic country at that time.
The first Swedish Embassy in Tirana was opened in 2010 and the first ambassador to Albania was assigned in 2016. Mrs. Hastad is the second woman ambassador of Sweden in Tirana.
1990s, Sweden reinforces relations with Albania
After the 1990s, when the communist dictatorship was changed and pluralism was established in Albania which entered the path of democracy, Sweden reinforced the relations with this Balkan country. The reason is explained by Ambassador Hasdad: “Our relationship was very much driven by solidarity and the wish to be a part of the democratization in Albania but also in the world. Many things happened in the ‘90s: The Soviet Union fell apart, the war in former Yugoslavia, and communism disappeared in the whole eastern bloc; in South Africa apartheid was defeated and we all believed in freedom and democracy! Sweden was very much engaged in this, and we wanted to support the democratic forces and the new countries which were many. I mean former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Western Balkans, and Sweden was really engaged in Solidarnost movement in Poland, the democratic movement in Albania.”
And which is the driving force behind Sweden’s relation with Albania? Mrs. Hastad commented: “Solidarity, a better world and to keep our promise about EU-accession is very much the driving force behind Sweden’s relation with Albania. When the Dayton peace agreement was signed after the war in former Yugoslavia – with our former minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt very closely engaged – we and the western world made a promise that western Balkans will become an EU-member if the countries would do the necessary reforms. This promise is still the basis for our firm commitment. This is the reason why Sweden has one of the largest development cooperation programmes in Albania being number 2 after Germany with approximately 15 million euro per year.”
Development cooperation, a corner stone of relations
One of the most significant aspects of the support provided by Sweden to Albania has been to help it become a democratic country and that was the beginning of the institutional relations between the two countries.
“We have agencies relation going back to 20 years – Statistic for example, or civil society movement Olof Palme international center. I say we have thousands of human relations, twinning cooperation, peer to per cooperation. In forestry, in cadastra, in gender equality, in environment just to name some! This is our richest relation today,” the Ambassador said, adding that the bigger part of the Embassy’s work in Tirana is focused on the development cooperation. And in this frame she said that there are so many fantastic stories about how the Swedish development cooperation has helped ordinary people in Albania.
One of these examples is the story about Soraldo, a fisherman from Saranda, southern Albania, who was supported by Swedish Embassy through its start-up fund. “Soraldo had an idea to transform his mussel collection business into a mussel tour service, offering tourists a true taste of how it is to be a fisherman during a day. This proved to be an excellent idea as his tours were booked throughout the summer and his business flourished. This is just one example of how Sweden supports Albanian innovations of today,” said Mrs. Hastad.
On the other hand, she revealed that Sweden, a well known country of a feminist approach towards everything they do, having a feminist foreign policy starting with its feminist government including the foreign policy and overall approach, is the largest bilateral donor for gender equality in Albania. “One great example of this cooperation is that we helped bring about the adoption in 2015 of gender quotas of candidate lists for local elections (50 per cent women) in Albania,” the Ambassador said with pleasure.
Sweden, Albania’s sturdy supporter on EU path
Ambassador Hastad noted that all Swedish support to Albania is aimed at helping the country become an EU member, but she was realistic to caution that joining the EU is not an easy process, and in this context she spoke of the experience of her country where there were hesitations and debate on the EU membership. “Twenty-five years ago, Swedes went to the polling stations throughout the country in a referendum on EU membership. Before that referendum, Sweden was alive with debate. Sweden had managed to stay out of the wars that had plagued the rest of Europe. Perhaps we saw ourselves more as Stockholmers or Swedes, than as continental Europeans. We had three main reasons for our hesitation. Our neutrality, our national self-identity, and our decision-making that we wanted to keep in Stockholm. At the same time, the EU was a unique peace project that made countries stronger through exchange and trade,” she said.
Albania and North Macedonia were blocked from moving forward with their membership bids at the EU Summit on October 18, 2019, but their expectations are still high for a positive response at the EU-WB Zagreb Summit to be held in May this year.
Asked by Polish Ambassador Karol Bachura on Sweden’s current position regarding the opening of Albania’s EU accession talks, Ambassador Hastad said that it was unchanged. “Sweden supports the opening of Union’s accession negotiations with Albania. We support strongly the start of the talks,” she said.
People-to-people exchanges…
Besides government-to-government relations a special attention has been paid by the Swedish Embassy to exchanges between the Albanian and the Swedish people. “It’s about friendship,” noted the Ambassador.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Swedish-Albanian relations, the Embassy made interviews with people who love both Albania and Sweden and who have a special relation to both countries. They were asked to describe this relationship and their stories are about Sweden and Albania. One example, as the Ambassador said, is the EU parliamentarian who is Albanian-Swedish Arba Kokalari. “She talks about her two countries and she is elected by Swedish voters to sit in the European Parliament. So she is an Albanian-Swedish sitting in the European Parliament. Then we have the (Albanian) Minister of Finance who used to live in Sweden. She talks about her relations with Albania and Sweden. We have other people like a poet Entela Tabaku, an entrepreneur, who grew up in Sweden but he is Albanian. All these people talk about their relationship with both Albania and Sweden.”
In addition she unveiled that there is more cultural exchange between Albania and Sweden than it is believed and she knew that many Albanians listened to the Swedish band Roxette during the 90s or who grew up reading the famous Pippi Longstocking. She had also met many Albanians who love Ingmar Bergman movies and she has Swedish friends who read Ismail Kadare.
But Ambassador Hastad has an ambition: to do even more together within culture. “When I meet with young people but also people my age – their knowledge and relations to Sweden is basic. It’s like an Albanian friend said. You are nice people, nice country – but we don’t know much about you.”
She revealed her Embassy’s big plans for the coming years. “I want to introduce more music, more literature, more Swedish sustainable design and business – because that is the future! So, the coming year we will participate in the Jazz Festival, arrange a Swedish Film Festival and travel around Albania in ‘Sweden on tour’ to promote Swedish culture. We will support Swedish artists visiting Albania and publish Swedish books in Albanian – and this is only the beginning.”
Economic cooperation, an ambition
“We need Albania to be a production market for Sweden,” was the answer of the Ambassador to a question on the economic cooperation and trade relations between the two countries which she considered as her ambition. “We have a few companies here like Volvo, a bed company family-owned Duxiana, a green bicycle company, tourism – but this is not enough. Two very good recent news are: the first, Ericsson has been selected by Telekom Albania as the sole supplier to modernize the service provider’s radio and core networks in a break-in deal spanning five years. That will bring Swedish knowledge and investment. The second, Swedish investors have decided to invest in Albanian dialysis clinics all over Albania. Diaverum is pleased to announce its expansion into Albania, a company operating five dialysis clinics located in cities across Albania. The acquisition is in line with Diaverum’s strategy to continue to grow through M&A into new markets where Diaverum sees significant growth opportunities – they see Albania as a great opportunity! I am happy to see the growing interest and trust in Albania,” she said.
Nevertheless that was not all as Mrs. Hastad showed that Sweden has the fashion industry and promotion of cooperation in sustainable fashion has started. “We have a lot to offer, but also a lot to do in terms of environment and innovation. I see an opportunity in the fact that Albania has textile factories, while Sweden has designers who need production. Albania’s proximity to other European countries makes it an attractive location for production. You do not need to travel to China or India or Vietnam. Also, it is good from the environmental point of view. Swedish business is sustainable, pay attention to environment and sustainable jobs. I think this is more and more important for Albania.”
Closing her discussion Ambassador Hastad had some personal impressions. “Albania is a great country, to visit or to live in. I have noticed that Swedish tourists love Albania. Last year, we had thirteen percent increase of Swedish tourists, showing how Swedish people are getting interested in Albania. I am sure that the numbers will continue to rise. I got a question from an Albanian politician asking me about good things in Albania; he was and is very critical of many things and he wanted to hear my opinion. First, you are more liberal than you think you are – in terms of values, ideology; secondly, you are much better than you think you are. Environment. Tolerance. Knowledge, Language; thirdly, your people are a much bigger asset than you think. Committed, educated, open-minded.
Questions & answers…
“I hope for questions,” Ambassador Hastad told the audience after her 45-minute comprehensive analysis and she was not disappointed as a dozen of questions were made.
The Ambassador was supportive of the Berlin Process in the Western Balkans answering a question by former foreign minister Arta Dade and she mentioned the Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO) as a concrete example of the regional cooperation. In this respect she said that it should be cautious about initiatives which could be a distraction from the EU accession process.
What she did not expect to see in Albania and what about Sweden’s image in this country was the question put by the Bulgarian Ambassador Momchil Stoyanov Raichevski. “I did not expect to find Albania such a liberal country where it is discussed widely on everything. This is an asset. In the meantime, the religious tolerance is fantastic,” was her answer. While on Sweden’s image in Albania she answered that there was no image of it in this country. “For example in our region there is an image of each other even with false or true anectodes. What I would wish is an image of Sweden in Albania like this, let it be false or true.”
Asked on eventual difficulties of Albania when joining EU, Ambassador’s answer was: “Albanians should think that they are in the middle of Europe. When in EU you might pay more, but what you will get back will be much higher. Poverty will decrease. In general there will be a social resurrection after joining the Union.” In her view, Albanians have to play the game.
In a comment on local government in Albania she said that Sweden had supported the reform in that aspect. She was hopeful that a new 7th cycle assignment with Albania will be adopted worth 15m euros.
Answering another question the Ambassador said that she did not limit her activity only in meetings with politicians. “I have travelled a lot, and I intend to continue this practice with the intention of meeting ordinary people.” On the other hand, she revealed that her Embassy pays attention to the use of social media and gets plenty of feedback which in its entirety is very valuable to get opinions of people of different ages, particularly from youth.”
In the meantime she was of the opinion that there was rich media diversity in Albania. In her opinion there is room to make some media regulations and it could be done by Albanians themselves.
“Open, bold and straightforward” was a comment made by a guest to the event on Ambassador’s intensive activity in Albania. “Sweden is like this, and I represent it,” was Mrs. Hastad’s answer which marked the end of the forum followed by congratulations to her thorough contribution and shrewd answers in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between Sweden and Albania.
© Argumentum
