Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis today talked in the margins of the Munich Security Conference over the maritime border row in the Ionian Sea between the two countries, which according to the agreement of both sides will be handled by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Rama explained the intention behind letting the ICJ resolve the disagreement saying that The Hague would "(join) the dots based on the (court's) expertise and international maritime law."
The border disagreement has been a long-standing source of tension. An agreement on the issue was almost reached in 2009 — however, the Albanian Constitutional Court shot it down a year later following a legal challenge by Rama's socialist party, then in opposition.
"That issue will not be at our discretion, nor that of the Greek side, but of international justice and in that way we shall focus on our economic (and) regional cooperation," Rama said in regards to the new agreement.