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| Erion Veliaj speaking to Developers and Young Entrepreneurs for the Advancement of Startup Businesses in the Western Balkans |
The mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, said today that Albanian citizens are showing more and more solidarity with Ukraine and that very soon the capital will send aid to Kyiv.
Speaking at the opening event of the regional project "Developers and Young Entrepreneurs for the Advancement of Startup Businesses in the Western Balkans", Veliaj recalled that two months ago he met with his Ukrainian counterpart, the Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, with who said they share similar challenges, but what differentiates our two countries is good neighborliness.
"Before the New Year, I had the opportunity to meet the mayor of Kiev, who spoke to me about the challenge of how big cities have to cope with public transport or the water issue, about the fact that many neighborhoods in Kyiv had been added. These sounded to me just like our challenges. We also talked about the issue of waste, how sometimes they had to burn it and sometimes bury it. Whoever lived in Tirana in the last month saw that this was the main quarrel here. So apparently we were talking about exactly the same problems, except for one detail related to who your neighbor is, as you address these problems. "I believe that this OSCE forum today, more than anything else, is a reminder of how important it is to have a neighbor who helps you in your ambitions, in your dreams, who works with you." Veliaj.
Albania said Veliaj, as a country that is surrounded by two European Union countries, Italy and Greece, is very blessed for its neighbors.
"What is happening in Ukraine is very important - to think not only about yourself but also about how important a good neighborhood is, to be surrounded by neighbors who want the best for you, who want you to move forward, too, as we are fortunate to be with these neighbors - or you may be surrounded by neighbors who think how to invade you, how to advance their territorial claims. The best examples are coming to us from Ukraine, from activists like you, from mayors like some of us here to some programmers and coders who, albeit in difficult conditions, are coming up with creative ideas - and this dating also serves us to reflect a little, to be grateful for some things we may take for granted, until the day we no longer have them or when we see that someone misses these overnight, dusk in a free place and it dawns in an occupied place", continued Veliaj.