Albania and Israel formalised a broadened bilateral agreement covering security, technology, trade, and additional strategic areas, as several European nations have been applying diplomatic pressure on Israel.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar visited Tirana on Monday, meeting with Albanian Foreign Minister Ferit Hoxha and Parliament Speaker Niko Peleshi, where the two governments signed a cooperation framework spanning security, technology and innovation, trade and investment, agriculture, culture, and education. Saar also posted on X that Albania had maintained a consistent position alongside Israel and that the two countries were linked by overlapping values, shared challenges, and converging interests.
The newly signed agreement sets out to increase the number of visitors travelling from Israel to Albania, while also permitting the Albanian government to engage Israeli firms through direct contracts, creating broader pathways for commercial and financial engagement between the two countries.
Travel figures show a significant increase in Israeli visitors to Albania, from approximately 7,000 arrivals recorded in 2023 to upwards of 100,000 by 2026, a trajectory that has accompanied a warming bilateral relationship and expanding prospects for economic and cultural exchange between the two nations.
Hoxha described the newly signed accord as a vehicle for translating longstanding bilateral ties into tangible areas of collaboration and shared economic benefit. In a post on X, he noted that 2025 marks 35 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries — a period he attributed to common democratic principles and mutual respect — and added that both sides had reaffirmed their intent to deepen the partnership over time.
During the visit, Saar also held talks with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, describing him as a reliable partner to Israel and noting the Albanian leader's work addressing terrorism and antisemitism at an international level.
Since the outbreak of conflict in Gaza, Albania has kept its diplomatic ties with Israel largely intact, maintaining a position of support even as a number of European nations have moved toward greater pressure on Tel Aviv and backed multilateral efforts to hold Israel to account.
Among European nations during the Second World War, Albania recorded a demographic pattern that ran counter to the broader continental trajectory — its Jewish population, numbering only a few hundred at the outset of hostilities, had grown to around 2,000 by the time fighting ceased.
Households from both the Muslim and Christian communities in Albania took on considerable personal risk to shelter Jewish people fleeing Nazi persecution. During the German occupation, Albanian families drew on Besa — a longstanding cultural obligation to extend protection to anyone in need, regardless of faith or origin — to take in Jewish families and keep them from Nazi forces, with the result that nearly the entire Jewish population in the country survived the war.
