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Prime Minister Edi Rama was present at the presentation of the book by former American diplomat, Christopher Hill, who 35 years ago served in the reopening of the US embassy in Tirana.
It was precisely the book "In Service Abroad" that brought back to Tirana the diplomat Hill, who is said to have influenced the imprisonment of Fatos Nano, the then leader of the opposition.
This was brought to attention today by Edi Rama, who said that he had heard about Chris Hill imprisoning Fatos Nano, but added that when he had to meet him years later, he thought that he was not one of those people who imprisons opposition members.
Praising his figure, Prime Minister Rama said that he is a "master whisperer."
Rama says that he was most impressed by the fact that Hill listened, a virtue that, according to the prime minister, American ambassadors do not usually have, considering that they are diplomats of a superpower like the United States of America.
"I have to say that the first time I heard about Chris Hill was when I was told that he had taken Fatos Nano to prison.
It was a very impressive way to leave your name behind after you had just entered Albania and simply had not engaged in any reform or transformation, you had simply taken someone to prison and left.
But there is something I can say for sure, and I think I am certain when I say it, that Chris Hill is perhaps the only American diplomat who has served as ambassador to this region who does not understand the Balkans from a distance but understands it from within.
Because he has lived the Balkans in all its corners, has practically described its entire map and strangely has never shown any temptation to speak out loud and become influential. To appear in photos from the mountain peaks and sea coasts of this region. He has always been present as a master whisperer.
I don't know what he whispered to the prime ministers and the countries he served in, but I know for sure that when I met him for the first time, he left a big impression on me. First, he didn't seem like a man who would imprison the opposition, and second, I was impressed by the way he listened. This is not a virtue of American ambassadors. They are good at talking and lecturing, but they don't listen. So he comes as a superpower, there is nothing to complain about, saying that when you come from a superpower, you don't listen because you have a luxury that others don't have. You have the luxury of cursing him and saying, "Get out of here," the prime minister said.
He further joked that for years the American ambassador, whoever he was, was the most powerful person in Albania. Compared to other countries, Rama said, the US ambassador is seen as a 'god' in our country. He also recalled the time when Hill served as ambassador to Serbia.
"I always wonder how someone can do the job of being the most important person in the country, because there's no doubt that the most important person in this country for many years has been whoever was the American ambassador."
Being the American ambassador to Albania is the second best job for an American after being president, because here it's like being a god. The answer lies in personality, and the way Chris does this job, with distance, very careful when listening and very quietly. I had the opportunity to get to know him much later than he knew me. That's the good thing about Americans, you may not know them, but they know you.
Then we had the opportunity to see each other on a number of occasions when he served in the most difficult place for an American ambassador in the Balkans, because it's not as easy everywhere as in Albania: in Belgrade.
"For me, it was extraordinary the way he dealt with that country and was able to shape in a way the course of events in that country, in which that country came closer than ever to what from an American's perspective would not have been desired," Rama said.
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