There is no place in the world like Albania”, Yuri Kim: Great Privilege to Serve Here

The chief of American diplomacy in our country has singled out its work in Albania as a great privilege to be given to serve.

American Ambassador Yuri Kim praised the friendship and partnership with Albania over the years, recalling reports in a century and two moments when the embassy was forced to evacuate for the first time in 1946 for a very long time and later in 1997. Kim told another story with Ambassador Ryerson.

The full word of Your Kim:

This year, during our 100th anniversary of US-Albania relations, I've been thinking about everything that happened before we all took the stage. So much has happened.

We have had our share of trials and afflictions, as well as successes. And here today by chance on this day when we congratulate Mr. Qafoku for his excellent book, we celebrate the formal start of negotiations on Albania's membership in the European Union. Who would have imagined this a hundred years ago?

That's what I meant. For every American ambassador, it is a great honor to be asked by the President of the United States to represent our country in another country. For those of us who can come to Albania as ambassadors, it is an even greater honour and is a very special honor. It is not that Albania is the biggest country, or because it is the richest country, it is nothing similar. It's just because this is the most special place. There is no country like Albania, no man in the world as Albanian. And the friendship the Americans have, that American ambassadors can personally experience with you, is something really memorable.

I may have mentioned that before I arrived in Tirana, I have visited the previous ambassadors that are still among us, including Ambassador Rogerson. He gave me instructions on the way to his house the old way. He didn't send me a point on the map to track it through GPS. He sent me a long direction: walk for two miles on this side, turn left, 1.5 miles on this side, turn right, all of this. And I said, “how will I know I've reached your house”? It's a long trip, an hour outside Washington. He told me, don't worry, you'll understand. So, I'm driving in an hour, I'm driving home, horses, farms, airports. And then, at the end of an hour, I see something and I know that this is where Ambassador Roryson lives. You know how I get it? Even in the village in Washington, DC, many years after leaving this country outside his home, proudly waves the red flag near the American flag. In his heart, he never left Albania.

So this is the next thing I mean. In a hundred years of friendship between the United States and Albania, we have left twice, in 1946 for a very long time, and in 1997. I hope that such episodes never repeat, I hope we all learn the lessons of dictatorship, of violence. I hope we can come together, stay together as friends. I can tell you this, America has been with you since the beginning, since the early days of the Republic of Albania, the Albanian Kingdom, even before it exists as the Republic of Albania, the Kingdom of Albania, we believed in the Albanian people. We believed in your sovereignty. We believed in your independence. We believed in your strength, in your future. We believe in you, we believe in Albania in Europe and believe it is extremely important and a great honour for every American ambassador to represent the United States here in Tirana, Albania, in this European capital.

The friendship between the United States and Albania will last another hundred years, the friendship between the Albanian people and the American people will last another hundred years.

Thank you. /abcnews/