Greek Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis on Thursday stressed that respect for minorities was a vital factor in further promoting relations of friendship and cooperation with neighboring Albania, which has a sizeable ethnic Greek minority living within its borders, and for reinforcing Albania's European prospects.

Speaking after a meeting in Athens with his Albanian counterpart Kastriot Islami, Molyviatis also underlined that the hundreds of thousands of Albanian immigrants living and working in Greece contributed both to Albania's economic development but also to economic life in Greece.

"It is our unwavering decision not to allow some isolated fanatical or extremist behaviors both in Albania and in Greece to affect the positive course of the many-tiered relations of neighborliness and friendliness between the two countries," he said. He described Greek-Albanian relations as having "strategic importance and a steady basis".

Islami said the Greek minority in Albania and the Albanian economic migrants in Greece were a bridge of cooperation between the two countries and thanked the Greek minister for Greece's official policy toward Albanian citizens. He assured Molyviatis that Albania will adopt all European standards for rights and also stressed that "isolated, sporadic phenomena" will not be allowed to strain relations between Greece and Albania.

Large numbers of Albanians economic migrants fleeing poverty in their own country crossed the border into Greece throughout the 1990s, a sizeable chunk of them as illegal immigrants, finding jobs mainly as laborers and domestic workers. In recent years, the Greek government has taken steps to legalize many of these immigrants, providing them with work and residence permits.

The two ministers said they had reached full agreement during their talks, during which they had reviewed developments in the area and Albania's European and Euro-Atlantic prospects, as well as the full range of issues in bilateral relations.

Public Order Minister Voulgarakis, visiting Albanian FM Islami focus on border security, cooperation

 Greek Public Order Minister George Voulgarakis on Thursday received visiting Albanian Foreign Minister Kastriot Islami, as talks focused on bilateral issues dealing with border security and joint efforts to stem various forms of smuggling along the two countries' common border.

Both men praised the current level of bilateral partnership, with Voulgarakis singling out the outstanding cooperation recorded during the hosting of the Athens 2004 Olympics Games last month.

On his part, Islami thanked the Greek minister for the flawless security of the Athens Games.
"Greece displayed a very good image in terms of effectively combating crime and all forms of smuggling," the Albanian minister said during the meeting at the public order ministry, adding that both governments are working well in managing and monitoring the border between them.

Greece, an EU and NATO member-state, shares land borders with Albania on its northwest frontier. An ethnic Greek minority has lived in what is present-day southwest Albania for centuries, while over the past decade or so, Greece has been a destination for tens of thousands of Albanian workers and migrants seeking better living conditions. In recent years, Athens has commenced a process of legalizing a number of previously illegal migrants in the country.

On the recent anti-Greek and anti-Albanian incidents which took place in Tirana and Athens earlier this month in the wake of the Greek national team's defeat by Albania in a soccer match for the world cup tournament, Voulgarakis said:
“There was a period when the very good climate in was in danger of being disrupted because of a match that took place. We want to protect this good cooperation between Greece and Albania.”

Islami noted that he wanted to “re-affirm the very good relations that Greece has with Albania, and the notion of cooperation between our two governments on all levels, as well as the very good level of friendship between two other bridges: the Greeks of Albania and the Albanian migrants in Greece”.
Finally, he added that isolated incidents cannot undermine the very good relations among the two countries’ peoples.

Source: Athens News Agency

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