Tirana, May 10 (AENews) – Chinese officials have recently canceled different technical level meetings with Albanian counterparts which were scheduled for this week. The cancelations came after Beijing’s request for the extradition of five Chinese Uighurs citizens, whom had asked for political asylum in Albania.

According to daily newspaper “Gazeta Shqiptare”, deputy minister of Industry of Albania, Eno Bozgo was visiting China this week, but scheduled meetings with Beijing officials were all canceled.
 
Five Muslims from China’s west region were sent early this week in Albania with a special flight from the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison after the U.S. government had declared them not guilty for charges of terrorism.
 
However, the Chinese government still believes that they are suspected terrorists and claims they should be repatriated.
 
More than 20 different governments from Western Europe countries have declined to accept them as political emigrants. Meanwhile, the U.S. government sent them to Albania, where Tirana’s officials are still considering their application.

Sino-Albanian relations where strongly improved during the last years. Deputy prime minister of China Hui Liangyu had visited Tirana in April and several projects of collaboration between the two countries are currently under way.
 
China is the forth trading partner for Albania. In 2005, imports from China reached USD 150 million, or about 80% more then 2004.

Meanwhile, Albanian exports to China, for the same period, increased by 420%, reaching USD 3.2 million.

Presently, Albanian imports from China include mechanic and electric equipments, chemicals, plastics and textiles products.

Moreover, Albania is the first European country to have accepted vehicles imported from China. During 2005, the total vehicle imports levels from China reached USD 5 million.

Posted by on May 10 2006. Filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry