The Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani, is on a mission to Albania, to be close to the Italian soldiers engaged in missions abroad on the occasion of the Christmas holidays and to wish them well on behalf of the Italian government.
Tajani will visit the Maritime Border Unit of the Guardia di Finanza (NUFROM) based in Durres. Initially set up to combat human trafficking, the mission of the Guardia di Finanza, which has been operating in Albania for 26 years, plays a leading role in the fight against illegal trafficking by sea and in the training of Albanian police forces.
Once in Tirana, the Deputy Prime Minister will meet the Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, and the Albanian Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Igli Hasani. “Relations with Albania are of strategic importance for Italy,” he commented, “and we intend to make our cooperation in migration matters a reference model”. Tajani also added that “Italian-Albanian relations are extremely rich and articulated: we want to follow up on the work we are doing to strengthen cooperation in the economic sphere and we will continue to support Albania in its process of accession to the European Union”.
The Deputy Prime Minister will also visit the port of Shengjin to inspect the area where the centre for the identification of migrants will be built, as envisaged by the Protocol on Italy-Albania cooperation in migration matters, signed in Rome on 6 November. In the evening, before returning to Rome, he will pay a brief visit to the Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic University.
