Albania has been a member of NATO since 2009 and is endeavouring to meet the associated obligations and standards in armed forces matters. Albania is also on the waiting list for EU membership and is not making any real progress. The defence budget is stagnating at 1.5% (by no means a reproach!), the country was the focus of the major NATO Defender exercise with Ukraine in 2021 and it supports NATO's position in the Ukraine war. So far - so good.
Albanian naval base Pasha Liman in times gone by. Photo: de-academic.com
Pasha Liman
Albania still has a naval base of fairly modest dimensions from the days of the country's own communism and friendship with the Soviet Union: Pasha Liman at the southern end of the Bay of Vlore, 100 kilometres south of Tirana. In the 1950s, it was still the only base for Soviet naval units in the Mediterranean. After the collapse of communism, this base was modernised with Turkish help, for which the donor had also secured the right of use.
Three of the four Damen Design STAN-Patrol 4207 patrol boats were also built and put into service at the shipyard there between 2010 and 2014. The Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama offered this Pasha Liman navbase to NATO in May as a base to be developed jointly.
"Butrinti" - the fourth Stan Patrol 4207 guard boat after commissioning in 2014. Photo: Ehle
Porto Romano
Since the beginning of July, the government has changed its mind and is now offering the port of Porto Romano, which is currently being expanded, for these purposes - it is located in the northern urban area of Durres, the port of Tirana, 40 kilometres away. There is to be a civilian and a military section there - if joint financing can be agreed with NATO. This certainly makes economic sense for Albania, is not unwise for NATO in terms of security policy (also in the face of Chinese advances) and not uncharming in terms of naval technology, but is actually too far away from the long Mediterranean axis of Gibraltar-Sardinia-Sicily-Crete-Cyprus for NATO units in operational terms. This topic was supposed to be discussed in Brussels last Wednesday - but the press releases have not yet contained any usable statements. An update on the state of play will follow as soon as anything of substance is available.
Kuçova airbase
MiG-19 on stockpile - Kuçova Airfield, Albania. Photo: mod.gov.al
Formerly notorious under the name "Stalin City", Kuçova was a 350-hectare military airfield built by the dictator Envar Hodja using prisoners, around 125 kilometres south of the capital. Until recently, discarded Russian and Chinese MiGs, Antonovs and Yaks oxidised there. Since the beginning of the year, the tower and runways of this base have been refurbished at a cost of 50 million NATO euros. By 2023, it is to be completed as a supply base (ammunition, fuel) to such an extent that flight operations can commence in accordance with NATO standards.
Source: euractiv
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