Minister Kodheli takes part at the Regional Conference, Adriatic Charter

: Published: Monday, 24 February 2014 13:16

Defence Minister Mrs. Mimi Kodheli took part at the Regional Conference, Adriatic Charter, on the topic: “Strengthening of the Interparliamentarian cooperation as a guarantee to the success of U.S. – Adriatic Charter”.
This conference was organized by the Parliament of Albania with the participation of delegations from the countries of the region: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo and Civil Society.
Present at the start of the conference proceedings were: the Speaker of the Parliament of Albania, Mr. Ilir Meta, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ditmir Bushati, U.S. Ambassador in Tirana, Mr. Alexander Arvizu, the Chairman of the Parliamentary National Security Committee, Mr. Spartak Braho and many other guests.

Defence Minister, Mrs. Mimi Kodheli delivered her speech at the conference. As follows, the whole speech of Minister Kodheli:

Honorable Mr. Speaker,
Honorable Parliamentarians from the countries of the region,
Honorable fellow Ministers,
Ladies and gentlemen,

I am delighted to join you this morning and be able to address this great audience.

Since the very outset, I would like to thank you Mr. Speaker for organizing an event of this kind, which brings together distinguished members of Parliaments from our neighboring countries.

Almost eleven years before, on the 2nd of May 2003, in your capacity as Minister of Foreign Affairs, you had the opportunity and privilege to sign membership of Albania into the Charter, together with U.S., Croatia and Macedonia, thus solemnly declaring our firm dedication and commitment to a common set of values of liberal democracy, rule of law, respects for human rights and liberties.

In addition to the regional cooperation and contribution to individual and regional security, this political process secured an alliance with the U.S. as far as membership into NATO was concerned.

Today, by good coincidence, in your capacity as Speaker of the National Assembly, you achieve in bringing together parliamentarians from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo and civil society representatives and exchange views on the U.S.-Adriatic charter, yet from the inter parliamentarian cooperation standpoint. Congratulations for this initiative!

I would like to underline that the idea of the foundation of the Adriatic Charter, particularly with regard to new democracies like ours, represents both a political objective, as mentioned above, and a mechanism of helping our countries towards Euro-Atlantic integration and towards transformation of our security institutions through cooperation.

With its “enlargement” in December 2008 to include Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, (every one of us in this room love the word enlargement, in a way or another) the U.S.-Adriatik Charter, or A-5, has continuously contributed to further substantial changes in our region by making our countries more secure than ever.

This year, Albania has assumed the Chairmanship of A-5 and together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs we are working to put forward an ambitious agenda and ensure its successful delivery. This meeting of parliamentarians does come as a prologue to our chairmanship, which will be followed by a meeting of A-5 Ministers of Defense on Thursday, this week, in NATO HQ in Brussels.

Distinguished participants,

Different from two decades ago, there is today a whole architecture of regional cooperation which, beyond any doubt, has helped establishment of political stability, more security and more economic interaction among our countries.

As countries of the same region, we have responsibilities towards each other, just as we have common security challenges, like organized crime, corruption, border management, the solution of which does require concerted action, working in a cooperative manner and pursuing a regional approach.

In doing that, we have had the continuous support of international organizations, particularly NATO and EU. These two organizations have placed regional cooperation and good neighborhood policy as an important component of their pre-accession process.

As Minister of Defense, I am particularly happy with the increasing role of the National Parliaments on issues pertaining to regional cooperation in general and the U.S.-Adriatic Charter Initiative, in particular. It is very encouraging that the very positive climate of cooperation, be it diplomacy, defense, security, economy, etc., is also reflected by cooperation of national parliamentarians at the same level. This meeting is a significant demonstration of it.

From another standpoint, when it comes to regional cooperation, but not only, it is also important that government ministries, law enforcement agencies, the executive in general, establish an efficient relationship with the Parliament, which would result in an intensified interaction between the two, and an active role of the parliamentarian committees, therefore allowing the latter exercise its oversight functions as provided by law.

This has not always been the case. I consider that as real challenge for the new majority. Our decision to split the mandate of a Parliament member from that of a government minister, is a step in the right direction. That, followed by other legal framework changes, would promote for more democratic parliamentary oversight over the executive.

To get back again to regional cooperation, to defense relations in particular, I do consider interaction with the Parliament and the respective parliamentary committee as very important. Appropriate implementation of that policy, does require a stronger role of the Parliament in approving the required laws in the area of defense, approving the required budget for the Armed Forces to accomplish their constitutional mission and international obligations, just to mention the first two most important areas.

As I conclude my remarks, I wanted to highlight that Albania attaches a special importance to regional cooperation. From the defense perspective, we view that as one of our main pillars of defense policy. Other countries, I am sure, do the same.

Regional cooperation is definitely a political framework that has been positively influencing the politics in the region over the last years and will hopefully justify, even more, its existence in the years to come.

Our main future challenge remains building a sustainable regional cooperation, to include political dimension, economic growth and security, which will enhance further advancement of the countries of the region towards NATO and EU.

Thank you very much Mr. Speaker, for making this conference possible. I am confident it will further enhance inter parliamentarian cooperation.

Thank you for your attention.