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Porto Romano is the final element of Corridor VIII, having extraordinary interest both in terms of trade and military. The fact that this corridor is mentioned in the post means that the Americans are concerned about this port...
As global conflicts become daily occurrences, with the ongoing war in Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East, the US has intensified its movements in Albania.
Our country is among the few that has openly sided with the Americans and Israel in the clash with Iran. This alliance with the US has turned our country into a key tool for them in the Balkans.
In these times of war, top American general Chris McKinney from the US European Command has arrived in Tirana. According to the US embassy, he met this week with Defense Minister Ermal Nufi, Chief of Defense Lieutenant General Arben Kingji, and senior leaders of the Albanian Armed Forces.
Brigadier General Chris McKinney from US European Command met with Minister of Defense Ermal Nufi, Chief of Defense Lieutenant General Arben Kingji, and senior Albanian Armed Forces leaders in Tirana this week. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/T9Vj9lW9Ry
— US Embassy Tirana (@USEmbassyTirana) April 10, 2026
“Brigadier General Chris McKinney from the US European Command met this week in Tirana with Minister of Defense Ermal Nufi, Chief of Defense Lieutenant General Arben Kingji, and senior leaders of the Albanian Armed Forces.
"Discussions focused on regional security, defense spending, the importance of military mobility through the Pan-European Corridor VIII, and Albania's impressive progress in cyber defense capabilities ," the embassy wrote in its post on "X".
But if we look carefully at the post, the embassy states that the discussions focused on the importance of military mobility through the Pan-European Corridor VIII. This means that the focus of the discussions was the port of Porto Romano.
The government canceled the tender a few weeks ago and under the rug there is talk that it was the Americans who influenced this decision. Porto Romano is the final element of Corridor VIII, having extraordinary interest both in terms of trade and military. The fact that this corridor is mentioned in the post means that the Americans are concerned about this port.
A few weeks ago, it was the American Chamber of Commerce that asked the government to cancel it. According to them, the current project is very limited in size and risks not utilizing Albania's strategic potential in the region. A project that envisages about 1,400 meters of pier wall and about 2.38 hectares of port area, is a scale that, according to the US, cannot compete with the large ports of the region.
This is where the main concern of the US with the Porto Romano project arises, which according to the American analysis, if built in its current dimensions, Corridor 8 may fail in its logistical function, as the main flows of goods in the region will continue to pass through large ports such as Piraeus and Thessaloniki.
The US wants the new Porto Romano project to be developed on a larger scale, so that it becomes a logistics hub for Southeast Europe. The US has also demanded that the project be implemented through a development model co-financed by international partners, including companies from the United States, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey, as well as with additional financial support from NATO. / Pamphlet
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