KUCOVA, Albania, March 4 (Reuters) - NATO member Albania, which has no fighter jets of its own, opened a rebuilt Soviet-era air base to serve NATO aircraft on Monday amid an increased threat from Russia, Prime Minister Edi Rama said.
NATO has spent over 50 million euros ($54.26 million) on the Kucova Air Base to bolster its presence in the region. Airspace in the Adriatic country of Albania, which borders Greece to the south and Montenegro to the north, is protected by Italy and Greece.
“This is a base that (will add) another element of security for our Western Balkans region which we all know that it is a region endangered from the threat and neo-imperalist ambitions of the Russian Federation,” Rama said during the inauguration.
nAtO iS iNvAdInG aLbAnIa
The great problem with the whole “NATO is encroaching on Russia” is: you’re assuming that the countries are joining because they’re being forced to, just like they were forced into the USSR or Warsaw pact. Now, there was a verbal agreement that NATO wouldn’t expand into the east, and that is what makes it uncool. But not even close to being what Russia makes it out to be
Does it matter if Russia rightly or wrongly thinks countries are being coerced into NATO? If Russia were convinced and genuinely believed countries are willingly joining NATO it wouldn’t change anything.
The issue is that they believe NATO is their antithesis, and that NATO coming closer is an existential threat. The how or why of countries joining NATO is irrelevant to that mindset.
They know that nobody is being coerced into joining. They just categorically ignore that fact because it doesn’t fit into their domestic and international propaganda narratives.
