Albania Welcomes Bush With Enthusiasm, Affection
Reception Contrasts With Week's Protests

By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 11, 2007

TIRANA, Albania, June 10 -- Evidence of Albania's love for the United States lined the road leading into this capital Sunday. U.S. and Albanian flags flew from lampposts. People wearing cardboard Uncle Sam hats milled in the streets. Oversize billboards and banners heralded the American president's visit.

"Albania welcomes President Bush," some of the signs announced. Others proclaimed that he was "making history" as the first U.S. president ever to set foot in the country.

Throughout much of Europe -- particularly in France and Germany, which former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld once labeled "Old Europe" -- a Bush visit is frequently seen as cause for protest.

But in this former communist nation, Bush was accorded a hero's welcome. He was awarded the Order of the Flag medal, the nation's highest honor. His visage is on a new line of commemorative postage stamps, and the street in front of the parliament building has been renamed in his honor.

"I'm pleased that George Bush has arrived here in Albania," said Anisa Torozi, 27, an unemployed office worker who carried a small U.S. flag in this city's central Skanderbeg Square. "He is the president of the United States, which is the state of liberty and peace."

It was the type of reception any president would like. But it must have been especially heartening for Bush, whose vow to foster liberty around the world has faced repeated setbacks in Iraq and elsewhere, and triggered an anti-American backlash in many places.

Thousands of protesters shadowed Bush during the German and Italian legs of his seven-nation swing through Europe, but none of that was evident here.

Military cannons blasted a 21-gun salute as Bush's motorcade arrived at the Palace of Brigades, the 1930s-era building that was once the home of King Zog, who reigned before World War II. Later at a news conference, Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha hailed Bush as "the greatest and most distinguished guest we have ever had in all times."

Bush returned the love -- or some of it. He repeated his public endorsement of Albania's bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He also reiterated his support for the independence of Kosovo, a Serbian province under U.N. supervision. Ethnic Albanians make up the vast majority of Kosovo's population.

"At some point in time, sooner rather than later, you've got to say: Enough's enough -- Kosovo is independent," Bush said.

Responding to a reporter's question in Rome on Saturday, Bush had said a deadline should be set for a U.N. resolution on Kosovo's independence. "In terms of the deadline, there needs to be one," he said. "This needs to come -- this needs to happen."

Asked Sunday about when he would like that deadline set, Bush seemed flummoxed. "I don't think I called for a deadline," he said. Told that he had, Bush responded: "I did? What exactly did I say? I said, 'Deadline'? Okay, yes, then I meant what I said."

He then concluded: "The question is whether or not there is going to be endless dialogue on a subject that we have made up our mind about. We believe Kosovo ought to be independent."

The idea is opposed by Russia, however, which has threatened to veto the move in the United Nations. Leaders in Kosovo, meanwhile, have warned that they might unilaterally declare independence if the U.N. process remains stalled.

Bush said the only question concerning Kosovo that remains in his mind is what mechanism should be used to achieve independence.

Bush's visit to Albania marked the latest expression of support in a long history between the United States and the Albanian people, going back to when President Woodrow Wilson opposed partitioning the nation after World War I. In the late 1990s, U.S. and NATO forces bombed Serbia in part to stop the ethnic cleansing of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, deepening Albania's affection for the United States.

Albania has sent small contingents of troops to Iraq and recently announced that 120 soldiers will join NATO forces in Afghanistan this summer.

"People here understand what evil can do," said Alfred Pllumbi, 28, an airport manager who walked the streets celebrating the visit. "And President Bush has fought evil."

Throughout Bush's eight-hour stay here, he was treated like a star. Crowds stood in the baking heat to catch a glimpse of the president's motorcade. They cheered and chanted when he emerged from his vehicle. At one point, Bush, in shirt sleeves, greeted a throng of exuberant Albanians outside a cafe in Fushe Kruje, a village near Tirana. Bush shook hands and hugged his screaming admirers, one of whom managed to rub his head.

Addressing reporters, Bush said he was "proud to be the first American sitting president to visit Albania" and that he hoped his visit would encourage the country's fledgling democracy, which emerged in the 1990s after decades of repressive communist rule.

"I love to come to countries that are working hard to establish the institutions necessary for a democracy to survive," he said.

After his visit, Bush flew to Sofia, Bulgaria, on Sunday night and is scheduled to meet with that country's leaders before returning to Washington on Monday evening.