Greece, Albania Agree to Resolve Maritime Border Dispute

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias (Left) and Albania's Acting Foreign Minister Gent Cakaj in Tirana on Tuesday. Photo: LSA

"I thank the minister for the fact that, despite the fact that at certain moments we have had tensions, Greece has never been an obstacle in our road towards the EU," Rama said.

Dendias replied: "We have the will to resolve the problems in a climate of mutual trust."

Dendias visited Tirana as part of a wider campaign by Athens to win over its northern neighbour, which has been under strong Turkish influence over the past several years.

Dendias also visited Kosovo earlier this month, despite the fact that Greece is one of the five EU members that doesn't acknowledge its independence from Serbia.

In Tirana, supporters of nationalist parties held an unauthorised demonstration against his visit.

Outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tirana, while Dendias was meeting his Albanian counterpart Get Cakaj, several dozen protesters gathered from the Albanian Justice, Integration and Unity Party, which represents tens of thousands of Albanians who were expelled from northern Greece at the end of World War II.

They were joined by protesters from the Tirana office of Kosovo's Vetevendosje Movement Tirana office.

Scuffles with police erupted and Shpetim Idrizi, the leader of the Justice, Integration and Unity Party, threw a bottle of water towards Dendias's convoy.

Albanian police detained 18 people for holding an unauthorised protest in breach of measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Albania's relations with Greece soured back in 2010, after the two governments reached an agreement for the delimitation of the continental shelf between the two countries.

The agreement...