Joint press conference

Thank-you Prime Minister Edi Rama.

It is great pleasure and a great honour to be here and to meet with you. And to see both this beautiful building but also to see some of the drawings that you have made and it’s great to be able to talk with you and to learn more both about Tirana, Albania and how we can develop and strengthen the cooperation we have within the NATO Alliance with Albania.

And I would like to start by commending Albania for your very strong commitment to the Alliance and to our shared security and also for the contributions you are providing to the NATO missions, both in Afghanistan and in Kosovo. The contributions you are providing to our defence capacity building efforts in the east, in Ukraine and in Georgia. That is something we highly value, but also what are you doing when it comes to contributing to stabilizing the Western Balkans.  And you play a key role and therefore it is for me as Secretary General of NATO important to meet with you here in Tirana and to address how we can continue to address both the challenges we see in Afghanistan, in Kosovo, in Ukraine and Georgia but also here in the Western Balkans and many other challenges we face together.

And we very much believe that through your cooperation with your neighbours, you make a valuable contribution to the security across the region.

And we thank you also for your very strong support for our Open Door policy and the integration of the Western Balkans into the Euro-Atlantic family.

And just a few days ago, we made a historic decision in the NATO North Atlantic Council. Because we decided to invite Montenegro to start accession negotiations with the Alliance. To become the 29^th member of the Alliance. This decision reflects NATO’s continued commitment to keep its door open. It reflects our commitment to stability in the Western Balkans. And our commitment to complete our vision of a Europe, whole, free and at peace.

And Albania has been key in this process. Thank you for your very strong support for the Open Door policy and for the decision to invite Montenegro to become a member of the Alliance.

Our security is being challenged from many different directions. And NATO is responding. We are adapting to a new security environment. We are increasing the readiness of our forces. We have more than doubled the size of the NATO Response Force. And we have increased our military presence in the east of the Alliance. And we are providing more support for our partners – to the east and to the south.  

All NATO Allies are part of the Global Coalition against ISIL. And I welcome Albania’s contribution to these efforts. It is important to stress that this is not a conflict between Islam and the West. This is a conflict between extremism and open societies. And we need to stand up for our values. We have to fight extremism, terrorism together.

Many of the complex challenges we face must be tackled with political and diplomatic means, but also military. So the continued military adaptation of our Alliance remains key.

We need to continue investing in our defence. As all NATO heads of state and government decided when they met in Wales last year.

I understand of course the economic difficulties Albania has been facing. So I appreciate even more that you have decided to increase your defence spending in 2016. And I encourage you to continue on this path. 

So Prime Minister, thank you once again for your warm welcome. It’s great to be here and I appreciate very much our cooperation. So thank you.

Q:  [Speaking with Translator]. Ilya Zotka, Plan Television. A question to the Secretary General, following the attacks of the 13^th of November in Paris the intelligence services in Albania informed that, that the country was one of the, or Tirana was one of the two most threatened capital cities by the ISIS. Is this is a form, is this information NATO has and if this is true is this the reason of your visit in Tirana?

JENS STOLTENBERG (NATO Secretary General):  My visit to Tirana is not something which we have decided because of the terrorist attacks in Paris. I think it’s of high value and of great importance for me as Secretary [General] to visit a NATO ally and Tirana because we highly value the contributions of Albania to our shared security as a NATO ally. But what I can say when it comes to the terrorist threats is that what you have seen in Paris but also in other European countries is that no country is immune against the terrorist threat. And therefore we all have to stay vigilant, we all have to stay prepared, we all have to step up our efforts to fight terrorism, to fight extremism and to fight ISIL. And we have to do that by using many different means, we need military means and I welcome that several NATO allies are stepping up their contributions to the global coalition fighting ISIL. But we also need economic means, political means, diplomatic means and therefore I think it’s extremely important that we all now support the renewed efforts to find a political negotiated solution to the crisis in Syria and I welcome that we have seen that talks are going to take place. NATO is playing its part, partly through NATO allies contributing to the coalition fighting ISIL but also by focusing on the root causes for the instability, for the terrorist threat. And that is to help countries in the region to increase their capability to stabilize their own countries and to fight extremism themselves. And that’s exactly what we do in Afghanistan where we train, assist and advise the Afghan National Forces to fight extremism, terrorism. That’s what we are doing in Jordan where we have the defence capacity building with Jordan, train, assist and advise their forces. And that’s not … also what we are now doing, the Government of Iraq where we help them to modernize their armed forces so they can have stronger local forces fighting extremism in Iraq. And that’s also why we are working with a country like Tunisia. So I think that we have to focus very much on how can we mobilize local forces in the fight against ISIL and extremism and I think that also illustrates that this is not a fight between the west and the Muslim world, this is a fight against extremism, criminals, barbaric violence and we have to remember that most of the victims of terrorism are actually Muslims. So we will support them in their fight but we have to stand together against our common enemy ISIL.

EDI RAMA (Prime Minister of Albania):  [Speaking with Translator]. Albania is no more and no less threatened than the other countries of the world we are part of. The next question?

Q:  [Speaking with Translator]. Mr. Prime Minister, the NATO Secretary General said that they welcome the increase of the role and contribution of Albania in the anti-ISIL cooperation or coalition. So actually has Albania been asked to contribute with military forces and means in this coalition? For Mr. Secretary, well when it comes to the Balkans region in addition to ISIS there is another stakeholder that has been considered a threat, an actor that implies you know, so has, and so this is a threat that has been considered to spoil or let’s say to affect the stability in the western Balkans region. So is there any strategy by NATO to preserve the stability in the region?

EDI RAMA:  [Speaking with Translator]. In terms of my, so the question you addressed to me, I can give you a simple answer which is quite common I would say for government and Prime Minister of Albania. We are fully committed to contributing with all our capacities that are available to us within this alliance in every and each mission where our contribution is required.

JENS STOLTENBERG:  NATO is very focused on how we can contribute to maintaining and strengthening the stability in the (audio cuts out) and we have been focused on that for many, many years. You have to remember that our first big military operation outside NATO area was actually in the Balkans in the 1990s. In Bosnia Herzegovina and later on in, in Serbia and Kosovo. Then our open door policy is also a key factor contributing to stability and strengthening the stability in this region. And Croatia, Slovenia they are already members of the alliance, Albania is a member and I think that the discussion I had with the Prime Minister today only underlined the importance of Albania being a member, not only for the security for Albania but also for the stability in the whole region. And then a few days ago we decided to take yet another step by inviting Montenegro. We are present in Kosovo, with KFOR, our longest ever military presence in any country with the KFOR operation there, so I think that we are really focused on how can we together with our member states in this region, Albania among them, work to make sure that this remains a stable region and a region which is able to fight ISIL, fight extremism and that is of course in the interest of the region but it’s also in the interest of the whole alliance and global security. So I would like to also then commend the leadership we see from Tirana, from the Prime Minister exactly in addressing these challenges which are present here as they are present in the rest of Europe and I will very much like to commend the strong voice and the leadership which Prime Minister, the Prime Minister has shown in these very crucial issues for the whole of Europe.