"The Port of Durres is disappearing due to corruption", Berisha: The agreement signed by Trump envisaged a deep regional port

2026-04-24 19:37:20Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

"The Port of Durres is disappearing due to corruption", Berisha: The

Sali Berisha

The leader of the DP, Sali Berisha, emphasized during a conversation with the youth of "Brain Gain" and the FRPD that the Road of the Nation gave another importance to the Port of Durres, which according to him is now being devoured by corruption.

Berisha also stated that the Washington agreement between Pristina and Belgrade, signed in the presence of President Donald Trump, envisaged the Durrës railway, or the Durrës-Pristina railway, and a regional deep seaport.

"We organized or feel it necessary to review through this department again in a short period of time the issue of the port of Durres, an issue, as the previous speakers emphasized, of extremely great strategic importance, of extraordinary strategic importance for the nation.

Geography is a natural determining force. The westernmost position or the westernmost horn of the Balkan Peninsula, that is, Albania as the westernmost horn of the Balkan Peninsula, makes our country the most geographically strategic country in this region. And if Albania, the westernmost horn of the peninsula, is the most strategic country.

Of course, this is because it has the shortest distance to cross to the other side of the Adriatic, to connect to the West, to connect by waterways with Europe, but also with the world. As a country, due to more complex circumstances, we have had a major development problem.

A series of factors have in one way or another stopped the times, but have not stopped them completely. The Port of Durrës, says Milan Shufflay, is like Iriqi, which in good times grows, gains weight. While in difficult times, he says, it shrinks, decreases.

But neither Shufflay nor any historian had predicted that the port of Durres could one day disappear. And that the port of Durres is being devoured by corruption. Corruption is devouring it. I said above, Albania has the most strategic position in the region. But we must be realistic. The National Road gave, reinforced this dimension to Albania in an unchangeable way. The National Road made our coasts, our ports the closest, ports for the region and Central Europe from the region. The National Road in the shortest trajectory is the most feasible highway that could be built, it is the most feasible corridor and there cannot be a second one as feasible because of the distance it shortens.

"The National Road was foreseen and we must be realistic, because without the National Road, a trajectory was foreseen at the beginning of the past century, as a railway. As a railway. The Austro-Hungarians foreseen the exit to Durrës by railway, to Shkodra and to Durrës by railway. I would say that in assessing the strategic position of our waters, in the Washington agreement between Pristina and Belgrade, signed in the Oval Office, in the presence of President Donald Trump, the Durrës railway was foreseen, or the Durrës-Pristina railway and a deep regional port was foreseen ," Berisha said.

"A deep regional port. And this railway, highway and port would constitute a fundamental element of the processes of regional development and integration. And regional integration. These processes of regional development and integration, or this railway and port, became necessary and completely possible due to the fact that Albania's position was such that it competed with all other entrances to the region," Berisha emphasized.