US Ambassador, Yuri Kim, arrives in Tirana

22/01/2020 16:53

13 days after taking her oath at the US State Department, the new diplomatic representative of Washington DC has arrived in Tirana.

Top Channel’s cameraman, Endri Kurti, has recorded exclusively the arrival of Yuri Kim, the new US Ambassador to Albania.

After a short stay at the VIP terminal, where she was received by the Embassy’s staff, Kim traveled to Tirana to prepare for this Thursday, her first day as Ambassador.

After Mariza Lino and Marcie Ries, she is the third female diplomat heading the US embassy in Tirana.

Yuri Kim arrived in Albania after Kathleen Kavalec, who was appointed before her, couldn’t get green light from the Senate, due to lobbying held against her in the USA. Fiona Hill, the former security adviser for President Trump, said in the US Congress that this lobbying had been done from a political party in Albania.

Yuri Kim, the successor of Donald Lu, has served as the Director of the Office of Southern European Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.

Previously, she was the Director of the State Department’s Center for the Study of Diplomacy, Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of State, and Director of the Office of European Security and Political-Military Affairs.

Mrs.Yuri Kim is the first Korean-American woman who represents the USA as an ambassador, and the first person from the US territory of Guam that serves in such a duty.

Top Channel’s journalist, Muhamed Veliu, says that in the next three years, Yuri Kim will lead the US priorities for Albania, starting with the consolidation of the judiciary reform through the Special Prosecution Against Corruption (SPAK) and the National Bureau of Investigation (BKH); pursuing the punishment of corrupted officials; minimizing the actions of Iran in our country; the Russian influence; and also America’s most recent concern, China’s efforts to control several strategic sectors in Albania.

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