Albanian PM recognizes clear, understandable danger to Western Balkans due to Russian aggression
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said there is a clear and understandable danger for the Western Balkans due to Russian aggression in Ukraine.
"Yes, there is a real clear danger for the Western Balkans because of Russia's aggression, but nobody should see like the Russian army coming here. But everyone should see like what is happening there [in Ukraine] can be repeated in different ways by Putin questions the foundation of the rules-based world order," he said at a press conference with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Tirana.
"This will be the world in which the one who is stronger, who is bigger, who has more soldiers can go and take over, and who is smaller and weaker [to be destroyed]. This is Dark Age," Rami said.
In this regard, the Prime Minister of Albania said: war is not something that people saw on TV, and then they got lost between Netflix and reports from Ukraine. The war is next to all of us. He said there is no matter how impossible it may sound now that it will come, it can happen.
According to Rami, "we [the Balkans] should keep a clear position on Ukraine. This [war] is not only about Ukraine, it is about us. If we lose this clarity, then we risk to enter in the phase of darkness."
The Prime Minister of Albania also commented on the post of former president of Monlogia Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, who posted on his social network a map of the 13th century with an image where most of today's Russia belonged to the Mongol Empire with an appeal to the Russian Federation: "Don't worry – we are a peaceful and free nation."
Rama said: "Speaking about the past of Russia, it is the Mongol Empire, and Russia is in the middle of it."
"But now imagine if everyone starts to think and acting based on maps. Then it will be the never ending war... If this logic of Putin's waging war, based on past achievements, past stories and maps, will prevail, then we will live in peace, where there is only power, not rules," he said.
"What is happening today in Ukraine is one more lesson for relativization of this conflict, because it is very clear to us: there is a perpetrator and there is a victim," Rama said.
