However, the alliance has pursued a cautious, gradualist approach. NATO has, however, already dispatched 1,000 troops to Albania and these troops are currently preparing for a much larger deployment. For now, the mission is to provide humanitarian assistance to the more than 300,000 Kosovo refugees in the country. As a result of NATO's substantial military presence and the free rein the alliance has been given, Albanians have begun speculating as to whether their country is becoming a NATO protectorate. Statements at the recently concluded NATO summit, where alliance leaders guaranteed the security of states bordering Yugoslavia, heightened this impression.
Albanian politicians appear keen on seeing Albania forge ever closer relations with the alliance.
But they do not wish to be seen compromising Albanian sovereignty. In a recent interview with the Tirana daily Koha Jone, Neritan Ceka, president of the Democratic Alliance party, was enthusiastic about the prospect. But while the vice president of the opposition Democratic Party, Genc Pollo, favors the foreign presence and close collaboration between NATO and Albania for the actions in Kosovo and Serbia, he's opposed to anything akin to his country becoming a protectorate. Sabri Godo, the former president of the Republican Party, a small right-wing nationalist party, agrees. Nevertheless, he supports both NATO's presence in the country and, if necessary, allowing the alliance to use Albania to launch a ground war in Kosovo.