Mitsotakis to visit ethnic Greeks minority in south Albania; FM in Tirana

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is to carry out a planned visit to Himare, Livadhja and Dervician in southern Albania on Thursday, where he will have meetings with members and representatives of the Greek ethnic minority in the neighboring country, the prime minister’s press office said.

The visit was originally scheduled to take place on December 7 but had to be postponed.

On Wednesday, a visit by Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias to Tirana preceded Mitsotakis visit.

Dendias met with his Albanian counterpart Olta Xhaçka and talks focused on accelerating dialogue in Tirana on the basis of the existing political agreement, in order to find a compromise that will allow them to draw up an agreement for referring the issue of delimiting the two countries’ maritime zones and continental shelf for arbitration by the international court at The Hague.

“The resolution of this matter, the resolution of the state of war and two other agreements, the agreements against incidents on the borders and maintenance of border pyramids, will send a message to the international community that international law and the international law of the sea are the basis for the resolution of all differences between states,” Dendias noted in joint statements after the meeting.

He underlined that Greece was always a warm supporter of the EU perspective of Albania and all the Western Balkan states “in the context of a just conditionality, which is strict but fair”.

He reaffirmed Greece’s total readiness to offer any EU accession assistance to Albania in any sector it considers useful.

“We believe that this is, practically, the only way and acquires huge importance in today’s conjucture, during which revisionist forces have emerged that wish to return to other eras and to other periods and perceptions,” Dendias said.