BILATERAL RELATIONS BETWEEN ALBANIA AND NORWAY

Norway is located in Northern Europe – with borders to Sweden, Finland and Russia on the east side, and an extensive coastline facing the North Atlantic Ocean on the west side and the Barents Sea to the north. The population is approximately 5.3 million and over 1 million of whom live in and around the capital city, Oslo.

Norway’s political system is a representative parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy. Norway is not part of EU, but is part of the European Economic Area and a member of NATO.

OVERVIEW

Diplomatic relations with Norway were (re)established on May 29, 1971. Albania covers diplomatic relations with Norway thorugh its Embassy in Stockholm, while Norway covers diplomatic relations with Albania through its Embassy in Pristina.

BILATERAL RELATIONS

The first visit of a Norwegian Foreign Minister to Albania was in April 1998, when Mr. Knut Vollebæk visited our country to discuss not only bilateral but also regional issues, especially Kosovo (at that time Norway was part of the OSCE Troika). In the 1990s, Norway began financing several projects in Albania, the most important one the modernization of the Albanian Telecom.

Political dialogue is considered as one of the main pillars of the bilateral relations. The latest high-level visits include : the visit of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ditmir Bushati, in July 2015, in Norway and the visit of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Børge Brende in March 2016, in Tirana. In the recent years, bilateral relations with Norway have intensified significantly. Norway is not a member of the EU, but is part of NATO, the European Economic Area and the Schengen Area. Oslo remains very interested in security issues in general, including stability in the Western Balkans. In this context, Norway has supported Albania’s NATO membership and Albania’s European integration process by providing concrete assistance.