Swedish Ministers in Tirana: OSCE and fight against organized crime on the agenda
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Sweden’s Foreign Affairs Minister Ann Linde and Minister of Interior Mikael Damberg visited on Wednesday Tirana and met with Prime Minister Rama, primarily to discuss issues of the OSCE. Sweden will take over the presidency of the organization following Albania and coordination has been frequent in this context.
Other issues discussed was the support for Sweden for Albania’s integration perspective as well as the need to jointly fight organized crime.
“Sweden fully supports Albania in its decision to open talks with the EU. We appreciate the hard and serious work that has been done in preparing for the candidacy and future membership, when we look at the reports in the EU, Albania has been very important. I am convinced that one of the reasons I am here is to discuss organized crime more closely. We will try to get support from different countries. Criminal gangs are cooperating in European territory. If we fight this phenomenon together we will have the opportunity to make a difference," Linde said.
Last month, Minister Linde joined PM Rama’s proposal to Belarus for the OSCE to act as a mediator, a proposal that was refused by Lukashenko. The most recent crisis between Azerbaijan and Armenia is also in the focus of the concerns of the OSCE and Linde said she had discussed the possibilities of OSCE facilitated dialogue with Rama.