Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on Friday dismissed as misleading media reports that portrayed his remarks at an international summit as politically charged, saying they were made in jest among friends.
“It is remarkable how today’s media operates and how ‘virality’ can so easily distort reality,” Rama said in a statement posted on social media. “A sentence spoken in good humor, in the spirit of friendship, suddenly turns into a worldwide headline, while the real substance becomes irrelevant.”
Rama said the comment was made during a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and French President Emmanuel Macron, referring to a past remark by former U.S. President Donald Trump.
“In the presence of our dear common friend Emmanuel Macron, I referred to a slip of President Trump, saying that even Albania managed to make peace with Azerbaijan, while Emmanuel worked tirelessly to bring peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia,” Rama said.
He said the lighthearted comment had been taken out of context and twisted into “political venom.”
“The truth is that President Trump has shown himself to be a leader who restored the word ‘peace’ to the vocabulary of the West after many years,” Rama said. “That exchange was nothing more than a moment of good humor among people who are, in fact, among President Trump’s greatest admirers.”