Andoni: The Albanian public does not know much about the military agreement with Croatia and Kosovo

Political analyst from Tirana, Ben Andoni, stated that the public in Albania is not familiar with the details of the agreement with Croatia and Kosovo, but that it is no secret Tirana wants to develop its defense industry while Kosovo seeks to increase its military capacities.

“I think that the agreement between the three countries, Albania, Kosovo, and Croatia, on joint defense and arms production was not very transparent to the Albanian public. A lot was said about the modalities of cooperation, but not about the way it would actually be implemented,” Andoni told Kosovo Online.

He adds that this is understandable since it concerns military issues, but in this case the cooperation is still “at an early stage.”

“It seems that we are in the initial phase, and Albania has started to seriously think about its armament, because it once had factories, but they are no longer functional. Kosovo believes it needs to increase its capacities because it feels threatened by Serbia, something reinforced by Minister Maqedonci’s statements that 80 percent of the Serbian army is stationed on the border with Kosovo,” Andoni explained.

He assumes that at this stage the three countries will focus primarily on the infrastructural aspect of cooperation, how far they can adapt to the set goals, while the actual implementation will take place gradually in phases.