Albania has offered NATO a naval base to underline the small country's value to the alliance "in these difficult times", the office of Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama said on 26 May 2022.
Prime Minister Edi Rama said that the Pashaliman naval base, located 180 kilometres south of the capital Tirana, could represent "added value" for the alliance. Albania, which joined NATO in 2009, has joined the United States and the European Union in condemning Russia's war in Ukraine.
The Pashaliman base in the Bay of Vlora was built in the 1950s when the Soviet Union brought 12 submarines here and thus had the only naval base in the Mediterranean. After the severing of relations between Tirana and Moscow in 1961, Pashaliman remained a naval base, which still housed four submarines and other small military vessels. The base was looted in Albania in 1997, when the poorest population in Europe at the time lost their savings in failed Ponzi schemes. Three of the submarines were sold for scrap, while the fourth was preserved and the government is considering whether to turn it into a museum.
Pashaliman was renovated by Turkey and has since served as a naval base for several military ships patrolling the Ionian and Adriatic Seas.
Source: Semini, AP
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