PRESS RELEASE : Bilateral Meeting between UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama [March 2023]

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama at Downing Street today [Thursday 23 March], as part of a wider visit by the Albanian leader to London.

The leaders set out their shared ambition to broaden and deepen the UK-Albania relationship, co-operating on addressing global and regional threats and strengthening our bilateral partnership. They noted significant opportunities to grow trade, investment and technology links, and Prime Minister Sunak again welcomed the significant contribution of the long-standing Albanian community in the UK to British life.

As NATO allies, fellow members of the UN Security Council and close partners, the leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to working together to protect the security of our citizens, defend democracy and promote human rights, including through a robust international response to aggression by Russia. This will include assisting Albanian cyber defence to protect against online threats.

Prime Minister Sunak and Prime Minister Rama committed to deepen work under the Joint Communique and Taskforce agreed in December, to take forward our shared priority on tackling illegal migration and criminal people-smuggling gangs.

They discussed increased operational cooperation, including joint upstream communications to deter people from travelling in the first place, and further agreements on data sharing and passports. The leaders welcomed progress to date, with around 800 illegal migrants returning to Albania since December, action on organised crime and new UK guidance designating Albania a safe country.

On criminal justice cooperation, the leaders welcomed ongoing joint work on extraditions, prosecutions and forensics capabilities, and the removal of hundreds of prisoners under existing agreements. They agreed that a joint UK-Albanian team will conduct an assessment of Albania’s prison capacity – to be concluded by the end of April – with a view to returning all eligible Albanian nationals in the UK prison system.

Finally, the Prime Ministers welcomed progress on business and university cooperation, including the launch of the new British Chamber of Commerce in Albania, a doubling of the market risk appetite for UK Export Finance support for Albania to £4 billion to facilitate investment, and the deepening of links between UK and Albanian universities.