Relationship dossier
Albania
United Kingdom
Relationship assessment
Albania and the United Kingdom cooperate on security and migration, despite periodic disagreements over migration policy.
Albania toward United Kingdom
+45The Albanian government has cooperated with the United Kingdom on migration and law enforcement, including through the agreement announced in December 2022 to address irregular migration and related criminal networks.
United Kingdom toward Albania
+45The British government has pursued practical migration and law-enforcement cooperation with Albania, including through the December 2022 agreement, and has supported Albania’s wider Euro-Atlantic integration.
Overall relationship
+45The relationship combines practical security and migration cooperation with close political alignment and periodic friction over migration rhetoric and enforcement. The December 2022 agreement provides a concrete framework for cooperation, while public disagreements have not defined the overall relationship.
How to read these scores
Scores are rough judgments, not objective measurements or current verification. Directional scores describe government policy and conduct, not public opinion. The overall score is an independent estimate, never an average.
- −100
- Extreme sustained hostility
- −50
- Substantially adversarial
- 0
- Mixed or neutral, supported by knowledge
- +50
- Substantially cooperative
- +100
- Exceptionally close sustained partnership
“Not assessed” means there is no recorded score. Pair existence makes no claim about diplomatic recognition or established relations.
Relationship context
Overview
Albania and the United Kingdom have a cooperative relationship with practical security and migration cooperation alongside longstanding political and defence ties. In December 2022, the governments agreed on measures to address irregular migration and strengthen law-enforcement cooperation. Public disagreements over Albanian migration to the UK have also surfaced, but have not displaced cooperation between the governments.
Areas of tension
- Disagreements over UK migration policy and public statements concerning Albanian nationals migrating to the United Kingdom.
Key developments
The governments announced an agreement to strengthen cooperation against irregular migration and related criminal activity.
Major uncertainties
- The implementation and longer-term scope of the 2022 migration and law-enforcement commitments are unclear.
- The breadth of bilateral defence and security cooperation beyond the main publicly known initiatives is uncertain.