Rama: Real Danger for the Western Balkans due to Russian aggression

The threat to Ukraine, but also to our future Prime Minister Edi Rama at the joint press conference with Ukraine's President Voldymyr Zelensky, following the Ukraine Summit, held today in Tirana, declared there is a clear and real danger for the Western Balkans due to Russian aggression.

I was privileged to have spoken with the President. Exactly what I said: To me, it is the most clear and accurate answer to where the world could go, and we were following Vladimir Putin's logic of justifying a war, appealing to the past. This is the Mongolian Empire, Russia is inside it”, he said.

“Imagine if we all start thinking about seeing international relationships based on maps. It would be a war that would never end“, Rama said.

The prime minister noted that what was most troubling him was that not everyone was realizing today that Vladimir Putin was attacking Ukraine, it was not just Ukraine.

“was an attack against world rule, based on rules, an attack against the community of democratic countries, a challenge, the most ruthless open challenge to the very existence of the EU. Not that Russia will conquer Germany, but if this logic of sparking a war based on past glory, old stories, maps of another time will prevail, we will no longer live in the world we know, but in a world where the most powerful decides and rights will be undermined”, he said.

Rama stressed that there are many lessons that can be drawn from our history in the Balkans, but what is happening today in Ukraine, he added, is another lesson.

Which tells us that we should by no means fall prey to the relativism of this conflict, not fall prey to the relativism of both sides, because it is very clear to us: there is an aggressor and there is a victim. Everything else is dangerously misleading”, the prime minister said.

As for the Western Balkans, Rama said it is a region that has problems, but that we should co-operate on things in common interest.

When it comes to the Western Balkans and we share some thoughts, of course we're not a trouble-free region, where if you want to start a war, it's hard to find maps, stories, or a message based on past glory. Instead, we live in fertile terrain, where much blood has been shed because of the war against each other. But at the same time we must continue to work together in such a way that we co-operate for what is in common interest and then debate and exchange peacefully for what we do not agree on”, Rama said.

Rama underlined that we have even supported Ukraine with packages of support which are not loans and are not part of any business.
“We never asked Ukraine to return any of what they took from us, of course, these are our options, but we certainly did it and we will do everything we could”, Rama said.
The prime minister stressed that “we are absolutely aware that for that war font, this is something very small”.

Right this way, for ourselves. This is not a existential threat to Ukraine alone, this is a threat to everything we think should be our future and this is not rhetorical. If we want a future in the EU, we want the European Union, we don't want to see the EU disintegrate after entering or after entering an endless internal expropriation war on what kind of rules, values or actions are justified or that is not justified”, Rama said.
The prime minister underlined there have been many sanctions against Russia, but of course we know Russian gas and oil addiction is not that simple.

The price raising, the rising cost of living in the richer countries are part of the plan to make public opinion start and say we cannot continue to support Ukraine. The problem is that if you take something from a poor person, it's not that it's going to make him change his mind, but if you take something from a rich man, he might lose his mind. So the account is very clear and for us this is key”, Rama said.

The Western Balkans is the only reality, unlike Ukraine, surrounded by EU borders. The European Union is the only reality in history that has two borders, one external and one internal. We are within the EU physically, but we are outside the EU politically, so we want to integrate fully into this body and we don't want to see this organism explode, because if that's how it is, we'll be left without a future”, Rama said.