Albania has officially taken over the Presidency of the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative / EUSAIR for one year, which starts on June 1, 2021.

Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Olta Xhaçka, during the second online meeting of this forum, stressed that Albania stands in the same line in terms of priorities and determination to increase regional cooperation with a special focus on youth.

According to her, investing in youth is the best and most sustainable investment towards the important strategic objective of this initiative, the European integration of the Western Balkans.

“For me, for Albania this is really a happy coincidence because Tirana was declared the European Youth Capital for 2022, which means that we have a very good opportunity to create synergies and promote projects and initiatives. I would like to invite all our friends and colleagues to work closely together and make the best of this opportunity, so that ALL-EUSAIR realizes its potential beyond the role it has played up to now as a venue for political dialogue,” the Chief diplomat stated during her speech.

The chairmanship of this initiative by our country comes after the successful OSCE Albania chairmanship during 2020 and at the same time the Chairmanship of the Organization for the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, for the first 6 months of 2021.