Yee: “Balkan leaders, mature solutions. There are no efforts for Greater Albania”

25/05/2017 00:00

Although he was mentioned as the person who helped ending the political
stalemates in Albania and Macedonia, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary
of State, hoyt Brian lee, said for “European Western Balkans” that the
merit goes only to the politicians leading these countries.

“The real merit goes to Balkan leaders who were able to take difficult decisions, like the one in Macedonia, where President Ivanov decided to mandate the majority for forming the new government, or the opposition in Albania, which took an important decision by changing its position and decided to go back in elections, which were postponed. PM Edi Rama also has merit, who had to find a very flexible solution to convince the opposition back in Parliament”, yee declared.

Yee was asked about “Greater Albania”.

“I don’t think there is a serious movement for Greater Albania or any great desire from Albanians, wherever they are, in Macedonia, Montenegro or Albania. The official stance, which I believe it is a sincere stance of political parties in Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Albania, is to integrate within the EU, join NATO whenever it is possible, no to change borders”, Yee said.

The US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State spoke about the Russian influence in Western Balkan. He asked Serbia to be more careful about it.

“We understand the long history and connection between Russia and Serbia. We don’t try to go between them. Our message for Serbia is to be vigilant and understand what are the purposes of Russia and why. They want to create the so-called ‘humanitarian center’ in Nis. I think it is not clear what Russia wants to do with it. I cannot tell what is their real strategy. But we see sme efforts from Russia to stop countries from following their national strategies, such as EU or NATO integration, or simply to have independent and diverse energy sources”, Yee added.

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