Albania has celebrated its two- year membership as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council at the UN Headquarters in New York in the presence of Prime Minister Edi Rama.
PM Rama and FM Olta Xhaçka had a formal meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierres on Monday.
It is the first time that Albania is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council with a two-year mandate.
Security Council has 15 members out of which 5 countries – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, are permanent members with the veto right.
According to a government report on the four-day stay in the US, Premier Rama will be in Washington on Tuesday where the meetings include talks with the US State Secretary, Anthony Blinken at a time when Albania has been chosen by the US as the pen holder over the issue of Ukraine having reportedly the right to initiate discussions on the issue of Ukraine.
In the meantime it is reported that the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Albania’s relations with the US as well as the issue of Afghan refugees sheltered by this Balkan country will be discussed. Albania reestablished diplomatic ties with the US on March 15, 1991 and as the Democratic Party led by Sali Berisha came to power with the Socialist Party in opposition Albania became the strategic ally of the US.
Now Berisha has been declared persona non grata by Blinken and is accused by him of defamation. Blinken has been charged by the former US protege at an international court in Paris. / Argumentum.al
