Greek PM Mitsotakis meets with Albanian PM Rama in Tirana, what they said

The issue of the delimitation of the Exclusive Economic Zone and issues related to the Greek ethnic minority were raised by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during his meeting with his Albanian counterpart Edi Rama on Tuesday.

Mitsotakis is at Tirana for the EU-Western Balkans summit.

"I believe we are close to seeing progress and a resolution of the delimitation issue of the maritime zones between us," he said. The premier added that Greece strongly supports Albania's European prospects, and noted the strong ties between the two countries.

On his part, Rama expressed the hope the Greek PM would soon be able to visit the Greek ethnic minority, a trip he had to postpone due to weather, and apologized to Mitsotakis for statements made during an interview to Euractiv, saying, "I saw how they were rendered, and they do not represent the situation in Greece."

Progress has been made on the EEZ delimitation issue with Albania

Progress has been made on the EEZ delimitation issue, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Tuesday upon his arrival at the EU-Western Balkans summit held in Tirana, adding that he believes that "we are approaching the time when we will sign the relevant special agreement for the recourse of the issue to the international court in The Hague."

Mitsotakis insisted that Greece has proved that it can resolve such pending issues based on international law and this is what we will seek to do in this case as well. In parallel, he expressed his grief because due to the bad weather conditions he will not be able to visit areas where the members of the Greek community in Albania live.

"We will make this visit as soon as possible. I want to visit the members of the Greek community," he said.

Regarding the prospect of the integration of the Western Balkan countries into the European Union, Mitsotakis expressed his satisfaction because, as he said, it is the first time that such a summit is hosted in a country candidate for accession and reminded that the overall procedure was launched in Thessaloniki in 2003.

"Greece continues to support the European perspective of the Western Balkans," the prime minister said while regarding Greece's bilateral relations with Albania, he underlined that "our will is to put our bilateral relations on a path of even greater rapprochement."