New York Times International Thursday, October 21, 1993 United States and Albania sign a Military Agreement
By David Binder, Special to the New York Times WASHINGTON, Oct 20 The Pentagon has signed an agreement, the first of its kind with a former Communist country, that provides for United States military cooperation with Albania. The agreement, a memorandum of understanding that is not legally binding on either side, was signed on Oct 8 in Washington by Defense Secretary Les Aspin and on Oct. 14 in Tirana by Albania's Defense Minister, Safet Zhulali. It affirms "the readiness to broaden and expand defense and military relations between the two countries" with training programs for Albanian officers and meetings on "the international security environment." The Albanian Army has about 40,000 men on active duty, but they are poorly equipped with weapons of Korean War and World War II vintage. Col. Adem Copani, who is military adviser to Albania's President, Sali Berisha, is conferring in Washington this week with United States officials on details of the agreement. The establishment of a defense relationship between Tirana and Washington extends United States military connections in the Balkans. There are already 300 American troops assigned as peacekeepers in neighboring Macedonia, and American planes are participating in NATO air patrols monitoring a ban imposed by the United Nations Security Council on flights over Bosnia and Herzegovina. Calls for 'Expanded Contacts' Although the Tirana-Washington agreement is not an official treaty, its provisions foresee "expanded contacts" between both sides. The agreement also calls for Albanian soldiers to attend the United States military education and training program and for "visits and exchanges" by mid-level and junior officers of the Army's European Command and their Albanian counterparts. The agreement also says "both sides will strive to search for new areas of cooperation and broadening and deepening of relations" and the United States Embassy in Tirana and The Albanian Embassy in Washington are to be assigned defense attaches. The end of the cold war left Albania, an impoverished country of 3.2 million, surrounded by less than friendly neighbors: Serbia and Montenegro to the north, Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south. Each neighbor has an Albanian minority and, earlier in the century, each had territorial designs on Albania. There have been incidents on the frontiers with Serbia and Macedonia this year in which Albanian citizens have been killed. The foreign policy of the Berisha Government has been directed toward asserting the right to self-determination of ethnic Albanians in Serbia and in Macedonia. This has provoked concern in Belgrade and in Skopje, the Macedonian capital. Last year, as fighting in republics of the former Yugoslavia increased, President Berisha formally requested Albania's membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a way of bolstering his country's security. NATO Bid Turned Down Albania was turned down, as were similar requests from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. But all were admitted to a newly created NATO auxiliary unit called the North Atlantic Cooperation Council. After World War II, the Albanian armed forces spent periods of tutelage under Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union and China. In 1977, the Communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha turned inward and rejected all foreign influences, a situation that continued until Communist rule was ended in 1991. Albanians Learn English The new orientation of the military toward the United States was underlined last June by Defense Minister Zhulah, who told his hosts during a visit to Washington that he had ordered all active-duty soldiers in Albania to learn English over the next 12 months. The Pentagon official said similar cooperation agreements are in the planning state for other formerly Communist countries in Europe, but that the agreement with Albania was the first. - - -
