Next month, a member of the government "Rama 2" will hold the first official visit in Trump administration. It is about the Defense Minister Olta Xhaçka. She will hold a visit to the Pentagon, invited by her American counterpart, General James Mattis. But in fact there is the mystery of Minister Olta Xhaçka's visit to Pentagon.
Mattis and Xhaçka met a few days ago at the NATO ministerial summit that took place in Brussels. There was confirmed the official visit of the Albanian Defense Minister. The US military is commited to modernize the Albanian Armed Forces. They will be upgraded with logistic combat equipment for infantry and Special Operations Forces.
Part of this aid has arrived and is expected to increase in the coming months. Recently, the Balkans is turning into a large armament deposit. This is the result of the Serbian government's decision to buy a large strategic arsenal of weapons from Russia.Just last week, Belgrade confirmed its armament supplement with a number of anti-tank helicopters. Serbia has in the meantime received a considerable number of bomber aircrafts Mig 29. Soon it is expected to arrive in Belgrade some of mid-range missiles S300.
This increase of Russian arms at the border of the NATO area has bothered the United States. US asked Belgrade not to sit on two chairs.
Croatia has for its part made the purchase of US missile systems and some artillery weapons by the US military.
The Albanian Army is almost completely renewing its Russian and Chinese arsenal. The Albanian infantry does not carry the weapon he has removed since 1945, the famous Ak47 - the Russian Kalashnikov.
Turkish and Italian weapons will serve as Armed Forces combat equipment. The entire MIG fleet planes has been removed from circulation and most of the T20 tanks have been melted.
Army combat mobility is being replaced by US armored equipment. The Albanian air force is not familiar with bomber aircrafts but only with French helicopters. They are the Eurocopter Company of the Sar Franco-German helicopters. As well as a contingent of Italian Augusta helicopters that were donated by the Italian government 10 years ago.
But where is the mystery of the visit of Minister Olta Xhaçka to the Pentagon?
The Pentagon will also discuss the continuation of arming the Afghan army from Albania. Two years ago, 10,000 Kalashnikovs was sent to Kabul as a donation. In 2014, the Albanian Army sent a large amount of weaponry to Peshmerga Kurds in Iraq.
It's about 22,000 Kalashnikov cartridges, 15,000 hand grenades and 32,000 artillery shells. Kurdish Peshmerga were part of the US coalition in the fight against ISIS in northern Iraq.
Kurdish Peshmergas, who are the armed arm of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, are allegedly already co-operating with YPG in Syria. They are colliding with Turkish forces in Africa.
Since 2016 no Albanian weapons have gone to the Kurds.