Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama. (Photo via Twitter)
TIRANA, Albania — Balkan neighbors Albania and Greece said Tuesday they have agreed to refer a dispute over their maritime borders in the Ionian Sea to the Netherlands-based International Court of Justice.
The joint decision was announced during a visit to Tirana by Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias.
"We have agreed to pass on this case to international justice," Dendias said after a meeting with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.
Rama said that taking the disagreement to the court in The Hague would "(join) the dots based on the (court's) expertise and international maritime law."
Greece has recently launched a push to delimitate its sea borders with neighboring countries, amid high tensions — that threatened to trigger a military confrontation — with eastern neighbor Turkey over offshore energy exploitation rights in the Eastern Mediterranean. Athens has so far signed deals with Italy and Egypt.
Tirana and Athens inked a deal to define their maritime border in 2009, when Albania was governed by the Democratic party that is now in opposition.
But Rama's Socialists, then in opposition, had challenged the agreement in court, claiming it cost the country 225 sq. kilometers (86 sq. miles) of territorial waters.
Albania's Constitutional Court nullified the agreement nine months later, deeming it unconstitutional.
"That issue will not be at our discretion, nor that of the Greek side, but of international justice and in that way we shall focus on our economic (and) regional cooperation," Rama said.
Dendias underlined, in statements after his meeting with Rama, that "after having thoroughly examined the matter, we agreeed to jointly have recourse to international justice, to the International Court in The Hague."
Relations between Greece and post-communist Albania have been at times uneasy, largely over minority rights, and Albania's repealing of the 2009 Ionian Sea agreement was another field of tension.
Dendias said Tuesday that Greece would soon nullify the formal state of war still in place between the two countries since World War II, when fascist Italian forces invaded Greece through the Albanian border before being forced to retreat deep into Albania.
European Union member Greece has long backed Albania's desire to eventually join the 27-nation bloc.
The governments in Tirana and Athens have said that the ethnic Greek minority in Albania and the large population in Greece of Albanians who emigrated there after the fall of communism serve as bridges linking the two countries.
Dendias was in Tirana on Tuesday for a series of meetings with Albania's state and political authorities. Priot to meeting Rama, he also met Acting Albanian Foreign Minister Gent Cakaj, for talks on bilateral relations and the European prospects of western Balkans.
The foreign minister's discussions in Tirana were expected to focus on bilateral issues, regional developments and the western Balkans, according to a Greek foreign ministry tweet.
ATHENS - Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s government said billions of euros in subsidies to help Greek households wracked by soaring electric bills and energy costs doesn’t mean he will call early elections in hopes of gaining more support.
FALMOUTH, MA – The police in Falmouth have identified the victim in an accident involving a car plunging into the ocean on February 20, NBC10 Boston reported.
PHILADELPHIA – The Federation of Hellenic Societies of Philadelphia and Greater Delaware Valley announced that the Evzones, the Presidential Guard of Greece will be participating in the Philadelphia Greek Independence Day Parade on March 20.
NEW YORK – The National Herald’s Happenings of the Week as have been reported at the print and digital editions of TNH and presented by the TNH Editor Eraklis Diamataris.
Sign up for a subscription
Want to save this article? Get a subscription to access this feature and more!
To purchase a gift subscription, please log out of your account, and purchase the subscription with a new email ID.
On April 2, 2021, we celebrated The National Herald’s 106th Anniversary. Help us maintain our independent journalism and continue serving Hellenism worldwide.
In order to deliver a more personalized, responsive, and improved experience, we use cookies to remember information about how you use this site. By Continuing to access the website, you agree that we will store data in a cookie as outlined in our Privacy Policy.
We use cookies on our site to personalize your experience, bring you the most relevant content, show you the most useful ads, and to help report any issues with our site. You can update your preferences at any time by visiting preferences. By selecting Accept, you consent to our use of cookies. To learn more about how your data is used, visit our cookie policy.
You’re reading 1 of 3 free articles this month. Get unlimited access to The National Herald. or Log In
You’ve reached your limit of free articles for this month. Get unlimited access to the best in independent Greek journalism starting as low as $1/week.