Albania has sent military equipment to Ukraine, as well as positioned its troops in Latvia.
The presence in KFOR and in the east is also constantly increasing. There is a commitment to lead an extra platoon.
This was stated by the Minister of Defense Niko Peleshi in an interview to Euronews Albania, where he gave details on Albania's engagement in the war in Ukraine, as well as on the discussions at the meeting of Defense Ministers of NATO countries, which took place in Brussels on Wednesday.
What help can the Albanian army give today to the army and the Ukrainian people who are fighting against the Russian occupier? What concrete help can we give to Ukraine today?
First let me share with you the theme or focus of today's summit, which is as dry as it's been an extraordinary summit of NATO Defense Ministers. NATO Allies have shared with each other the contributions that have been made and delivered to Ukraine as well as the willingness to increase and strengthen support, whether by military means or by humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Albania is certainly not behind other countries, we have already sent important first aid, inherent in military means to Ukraine and we are committed today and in the future to increase the contributions to the best of our ability, both with ammunition and military means, but without a doubt also with humanitarian equipment both from the Albanian army, but also from the civil society.
To remain a little more specific in the military assistance that Albania has given to Ukraine, we are talking about military means within the capacities and opportunities that Albania has, what is it about, what have we brought to Ukraine today?
I apologize for not being able to detail the quantities and type of ammunition and military equipment we have delivered to Ukraine. NATO member countries have helped and supported us with logistics, which I also prefer to keep discreet for understandable reasons, but I want to say that this assistance has been substantial, both in value and quantity. Also greeted and thanked by President Zelensky himself, a week ago, where he had a phone call with Prime Minister Rama to thank him and discuss what we can do more for Ukraine. Of course, just like the Prime Minister, I in all the meetings and summits, which will be as you said, frequent, and extraordinary in these times, in following the situation to keep note and commit, for everything we can help of Ukraine.
If today we are confirming this assistance to Ukraine, what will happen at the extraordinary NATO Summit expected to be held in Brussels on March 24? Will the aid be escalated? This Ministerial today precedes the Extraordinary Summit, where will be the difference between the decision-making that the Ministerial had today and the NATO Extraordinary Summit held on March 24?
Today's Ministerial has not taken any decision on any specific document, today's Ministerial aimed to confirm the contributions and the will to increase the contributions, secondly to strengthen the unity which is being appreciated by all ministers now that we are talking in The summit is the most important priority and let us say the positive of the whole negative event, the terrible aggression that is happening from Russia to Ukraine.
It has never been before that the NATO Alliance is more united than today. Today there are no more differences within the allies, we are all unanimous. They are all ready and convinced that we must strengthen the defense, supporting Ukraine. It is important that the war in Ukraine be won by Ukraine, that Putin fail and be discouraged from continuing his aggression in countries that are rightly endangered. I want to remind you here that the Western Balkans is not far from this hearth.
One of the results of today's Summit, especially in its second half, is the strengthening and the will of all allies to strengthen the eastern wing of the Alliance, which means the countries that are on the border and near Russia. We are not, the Western Balkans is not directly on the first eastern front, but we are let's say on the second front. What makes our Balkans fragile is the fact that not all Western Balkan countries are located in the western orientation, we have countries like Serbia for example, or Bosnia that are wavering in their position. This makes the political situation in the Balkans vulnerable to Russian aggression. It is precisely the empowerment that is being decided today and the will of all members is being taken, the empowerment of the presence with increased military units in the east, that discourages Russia from claiming to extend instability to our Western Balkans as well.
We are lucky to be a member of NATO as we have said before, but only three of the six countries of the Western Balkans are in NATO. Today is the moment to remind that our EU integration process as one of the two main Euro-Atlantic structures must take a new speed both for Albania and for other countries of the Western Balkans in order for us to feel more secure and so that the countries of the Western Balkans can see their social and economic prosperity from the west.
Is there an express of guarantee, whether in the meeting at today's Ministerial, or all the diplomatic meetings that have been held at a high EU level to accelerate Albania's path to the EU and possibly Kosovo's membership in NATO, in these conditions of political and military tensions in Europe?
The meeting of NATO interior ministers is not a forum and platform where such commitments can be made, but I can still share with you the fact that not only Albania, not only Northern Macedonia and Montenegro, ie NATO member countries of the Western Balkans, but also other countries such as Italy, Bulgaria and other countries very sensitive to developments in the Western Balkans have reminded once again that the Western Balkans should receive increased attention, whether accelerating the EU and NATO integration processes, even by strengthening the military presence in them. Albania is part of the increase of military units in the Western Balkans, in Kosovo and Bosnia, or in the East, as I said a little above. But in the meantime, you have followed Borrel, who has said that the EU has a will and must accelerate the integration processes of Albania and the Western Balkans in it.
I want to ask you some other questions that I am very curious about.
Is Albania ready if it will always be necessary to activate the reserve forces and how many reserve forces do we have available today?
As I said, we are part of NATO and we receive tasks, commitments, and directives in relation to the supreme commander of NATO. So far we have been asked to add some military units in the Balkan region and in the east and we are engaged and now we have the decisions of the Council of Ministers approved in force and we are ready as soon as we receive the command, the signal to allocate these troops, these additional units. So we are not in the scenario of activation and mobilization even beyond our Armed Forces, in the reserve forces and beyond, we are not in the scenario of readiness. This is in the sense that neither we nor other countries in the Western Balkans have raised our level of preparedness because we do not calculate but a risk with high potential to occur in the Western Balkans, we are not worried about possible military aggression in our country. As I said we are NATO allies and Article 5 protects every square centimeter of NATO space. So it is not a matter of potential aggression against Albania, for this, we will all have to be calm.
We are protected as any NATO member country is protected. What worries us is the instability and political escalation that can occur in the countries of the Western Balkans, mainly in those countries that are undecided in their western orientation, but which are influenced by our rival values such as Russia, but also China.
If we get to that scenario, would our reserve forces be activated, and do we have a significant number of reserve forces?
I believe that we are very far from such a scenario and it is better not to make hypotheses because in public opinion it would then cause a kind of unnecessary and unjustified fear and worry at the moment.
Some of the helicopters we have part of the FA that are Cougar helicopters are for service in Poland, as is their history we have not heard for many years about these helicopters we once bought in the time of another government. Are these helicopters in working conditions and this service that is being done to make them available if needed?
No, it does not matter, they are periodic services provided to our aircraft, so it has nothing to do with the situation or the need to increase readiness.
We are not in the scenario of increasing our readiness, but the services happen periodically. We have started very successful cooperation so far, with the NATO procurement agency, which procures on our behalf these types of periodic services helping us The contract you just mentioned is an old contract that was not executed by the NATO agency, but was previously entered into by the Ministry of Defense and is now being delivered but has nothing to do with the situation.
What may be of interest is the fact that we are expecting to soon receive two Blackhawk helicopters from the US, contracted, paid, we are now waiting for delivery even I do not believe I am in a hurry if I say that we also calculate the possibilities to increase the Blackhawk fleet even for them increased by other aircraft related to both the situation and in the sense that in this situation when the foundations of architecture in the region and European security are being shaken as a whole have been shaken. Each country needs to recalculate its own capacity. Of course, we have a target NATO capacity to meet, but we must also develop our national capacity.
One of the points being discussed at the Summit is the re-engagement to respect the obligation to increase the budget by 2% of GDP by 2024. We as Albania are committed to respecting this graph, but today we are committed to repeating this commitment.
For the navy, for the Illyrian ships, they also had problems with maintenance, what is the current state of the Albanian navy, is their maintenance more problematic? Will we invest in the navy as we are investing in the air fleet?
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What is your other engagement in this Ministerial as Minister of Defense of Albania?
This Ministerial is divided into two sessions now the second part will follow. I have another word for this session, this session is mainly about our commitment to the defense budgets of all member states, but also to our willingness to support the plans of the Supreme Commander of NATO and the Secretary-General for them to strengthen our presence in the east. Apparently, that presence will not be there for a short time, because I was saying that unwarranted and barbaric Russian aggression has shaken the whole landscape of European security, which means that both NATO and its member states will review strategies of their defense security, but also their presence on the borders with Russia.
And one last question, do we have forces in Poland today?
No, we do not have forces in Poland, we have forces in Latvia.
We have 20 troops in Latvia. We are increasing our presence in KFOR and in the east, as I said, we are committed to bring there an additional platoon.