Albanian Premier Edi Rama argued about the Open Balkans project in the parliament today with former Minister of the Foreign Affairs Tritan Shehu, defending openly but without convincing arguments the initiative that so far involves only Albania, Serbia and North Macedonia.

Claiming that the Open Balkans initiative is simply an add-on to the Berlin Process, Rama ridiculed in his address the concerns of the Western chancelleries and intelligent services about the expansion of Russian and Chinese interests in the region, going against the Euro-Atlantic ones.

“It’s China, it’s Russia, it’s the Shaytan…”, said Rama, laughing at the worries of the Western world about the Sino-Russian threat in the region.

“This is a space where I aim to have the four freedoms of the European Union; the parallels you draw with Yugoslavia are just an unnecessary word game. For me, this initiative is of national interest. I’d like to say something else, considering the questions about China, now it’s China, it’s Russia, the Shaytan. I know that the Open Balkans is an implementation unit of the Process of Berlin, we have invited all the countries to be a part of it, Kosovo is losing by being absent in that table. I know that establishing economic relations has been used throughout history as a catalyst for the solution of political issues”, Rama said.