Albania offers ex-Soviet built naval base to NATO

TIRANA, Albania  — Albania has offered NATO a naval base in an effort to highlight the small country’s value in the alliance “in these difficult times,” the prime minister’s office said Thursday, AP reported.

Prime Minister Edi Rama said Pashaliman naval base, 180 kilometres (110 miles) south of the capital Tirana, could be “an added value” to the alliance and they had prepared a project on its renovation.

“In these dangerous times I believe the general may consider having a NATO’s naval base in Albania,” Rama said in a speech Wednesday.

Albania, which became a NATO member in 2009, has joined the United States and the European Union in denouncing Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Pashaliman base located under the Vlora Bay was built in the 1950s when the Soviet Union brought 12 submarines, making it the only naval base they had in the Mediterranean. Following the breakdown of Tirana-Moscow ties in 1961, the Pashaliman remained as a naval base sheltering four remaining submarines and other small military ships.