Prime Minister Edi Rama has reacted for the first time after his Greek counterpart, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, did not invite him to participate in the dinner with the leaders of the region that was held on Monday (August 21) in Athens. 

The head of government said he had remained silent until now because he did not want to disturb the host of the informal meeting, Mitsotakis, and his guests, which included Western Balkan leaders, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the president of the European Council, Charles Michel. 

"I am happy that Kyriakos took the initiative to meet with very important leaders and to discuss the European future of the Balkans against the background of Russian aggression. The region needs Greece to be more involved in our common path. I have always told him or other Greek friends, saying it publicly on several occasions, that I honestly believe their country has a natural role to play in the Balkans given its profile and experience in the EU. 

I really hope that the meeting was productive and of course, I would rather not have seen the dinner used to send Albania a contradictory message in front of the much more ambitious goal of the initiative and I hope that this unfortunate fact does not confuse the honoured guests. 

As far as I am concerned, talking, communicating, debating with friends, allies, partners and neighbours is, above all, the essence of international politics, and trying, always trying, to put yourself in the other's shoes is a must... Even more so when things seem to go wrong. 

In October, Albania will chair this year's Berlin Process Summit in Tirana. Of course, my dear friend and highly respected colleague in Athens has been invited to attend, and I could never imagine responding quietly by inviting instead the Greek President, for whom I have the greatest respect. 

I understand the pressure from third parties, eager to take every opportunity to make a mountain out of a hill. But we all have much bigger challenges ahead, there are real mountains to climb. 

What should unite us in such turbulent times for the sake of our people, our countries, our region, our Europe is greater than what divides us. Too much is at stake globally, that we become hostage to internal tribal politics," Rama wrote.