TIRANA, Albania — When it comes to Albania, the United States seems to be going from indifferent to involved in light of China’s increased footprint in the region. The larger US engagement with the tiny Balkan nation highlights the emergence of another potential collision point between China’s geoeconomic ambitions in the region and growing, albeit belated, Western efforts to push back. .

While most Balkan countries have been hungry recipients of Chinese money, Albania has been an exception, choosing to engage selectively with Beijing. While there are about 120 China-related projects worth nearly $32 billion in the Balkans – the majority of which is in the infrastructure and energy sectors – Albania has largely avoided racking up huge Chinese debt in return for development, opting instead for acquisitions that do not threaten to leverage the country’s future.

Washington responded favorably by booster investments and military ties. At the beginning of January, the US Special Operations Command Europe announcement he was establishing a forward base in Albania on a rotational basis. This came just months after the country hosted the Defender Europe 21 military exercises, the biggest operation in southeastern Europe since World War II. And American investments, although still derisory, are increasing rapidly. According to the Albanian Central Bank, US foreign direct investment increased by 48% in the third quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, reaching approximately $140 million.

TIRANA, Albania — When it comes to Albania, the United States seems to be going from indifferent to involved in light of China’s increased footprint in the region. The larger US engagement with the tiny Balkan nation highlights the emergence of another potential collision point between China’s geoeconomic ambitions in the region and growing, albeit belated, Western efforts to push back. .

While most Balkan countries have been hungry recipients of Chinese money, Albania has been an exception, choosing to engage selectively with Beijing. While there are about 120 China-related projects worth nearly $32 billion in the Balkans – the majority of which is in the infrastructure and energy sectors – Albania has largely avoided racking up huge Chinese debt in return for development, opting instead for acquisitions that do not threaten to leverage the country’s future.

Washington responded favorably by booster investments and military ties. At the beginning of January, the US Special Operations Command Europe announcement he was establishing a forward base in Albania on a rotational basis. This came just months after the country hosted the Defender Europe 21 military exercises, the biggest operation in southeastern Europe since World War II. And American investments, although still derisory, are increasing rapidly. According to the Albanian Central Bank, US foreign direct investment increased by 48% in the third quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, reaching approximately $140 million.

Washington’s renewed interest in Albania began in 2020, when the country joined the Clean Network initiative, a Trump administration program which sought to challenge the dominance of Chinese companies in 4G and 5G mobile technology. Albania was the first countries in the region to join and used its participation to curry favor with Washington, which was happy support in the region.

In late 2020, US and Albanian officials signed a memorandum of understanding on economic cooperation in Tirana, the Albanian capital, during a visit by Keith Krach, then US Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth. This decision paved the way for U.S. investment in the Skavica hydroelectric project and the Vlora Thermal Power Plant, a symbolic step to counter Chinese interests in the country, whose biggest project is Geo-Jade Petroleum Concession to extract oil from the Patos-Marinza field, the the biggest onshore oil field in Europe.

Despite Albania’s tilt towards the West, China is undeterred. At the end of October 2021, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Albania en route to the G-20 summit in Rome. In recent years, Beijing has welcomed the increase in trade; the country is Albania third largest import source after Italy and Turkey. Albania’s Adriatic coast is also of interest for the expansion of China’s Belt and Road initiative, which has placed particular emphasis on southeastern Europe as a gateway to the Mediterranean.

China had cobbled together a loose coalition of Central and Eastern European countries – known as 16+1 – which cooperated with Beijing’s Belt and Road. But with countries like Czech Republic and Slovakia begin to tire of Beijing’s expensive investments, then irritate Beijing with shows of support for Taiwan and Lithuania pulling of the grouping in May 2021, keeping strategic partners like Albania at its side is essential for Beijing.

“Albania has symbolic value for China, and the country is one of the most interesting in the region because of its historical ties with China and its alignment with the ‘One China’ policy,” Stefan said. Vladisavljev, program coordinator at the BFPE Foundation. for a responsible society, a Serbian think tank. “On the other hand, it is a member of NATO and is dedicated to EU membership, which places the overall strategic orientation of Albanian foreign policy towards the West.”

The United States and Europe are one late effort put your thumb on this scale. Both Washington and Brussels have drawn up economic development plans intended to at least partially mitigate Chinese incursions across the Belt and Road, and both have paid at least lip service to invest more in the Western Balkans. But there are sticks as well as carrots.

Like many Balkan countries, Albania is prepare accession to the European Union, while enlargement is continually evaded by Brussels. If this approach continues, a bigger vacuum for Chinese influence will be created.

“Beijing is seen as a credible source of economic development funding by some Western Balkan governments,” said Valbona Zeneli, chair of strategic initiatives at the George C. Marshall Center. To nudge the Balkan countries in the right direction, she said, the EU should link enlargement and Chinese largesse.

“To promote a positive development, the EU must establish specific conditions that address investment agreements with China as part of its enlargement policy,” including greater transparency and screening mechanisms for inward investment , she said.

For now, Albania’s willingness to limit Chinese investment and to juggle between Brussels, Beijing and Washington gives the country a rare opportunity to be a regional power broker. Serbia belongs to China main partner in the Western Balkans, with investments, mainly in the form of loans, amounting to approximately 8 billion dollars. Neighboring North Macedonia also has has received Chinese loans, and especially Montenegro got into serious debt after taking almost $1 billion loan of the Export-Import Bank of China to build a highway. To the south, in Greece, the Chinese shipping company Cosco controls the port of Piraeus, the fourth largest container port in Europe, a decision that aroused a lot of emotions in Brussels.

By courting all the key players, Albania could potentially be a trailblazer for smaller nations caught in the crosshairs of the West-Beijing confrontation.