The outbreak of the Second World War and Albania's invasion by Mussolini's troops on Good Friday 1939, however, brought things to a dead end - Great Britain severed diplomatic relations with Albania. The Albanian Legation in London was closed down. In addition to this, in the vicissitudes of the war and the crisis in the relations between Albania and the rest of the democratic world in the early days of Cold War came to a head with the so-called Corfu Channel Incident in November 1946. Since then the situation has changed beyond comparison. The Albanian Embassy in London and the British Charge-d'Affaires' Office in Tirana are more and more involved in assisting to make up for the time lost and in helping people to realise that Albania has a new profile which bears no resemblance to the old image that still lingers in the minds of those who are out of touch with the recent developments since the overthrow of the totalitarian communist regime.
Bilateral relations are back to normal.
President Berisha's visit in London in March 1994 crowned a series of intensive exchanges of a senior Government and State level. U.K. The visit of President Berisha in May of 1995 to attend the VE Day Ceremony further boosted the bilateral relations in many different aspects. In the early days of the Democratic Government, with legislation largely incomplete, with the lack of experience in dealing with major economic issues, hesitancy on the part of British companies to look into the opportunities of a country emerging from the shambles of the harshest communist system was more than justified. Even then the spirit of British initiative prevailed and team after team of trade missions visited the country and made the first useful contacts. Within this short span, however, Albania has witnessed an increase of British business presence, which is the result of greater mutual confidence and the steadily increasing ability of Albanian institutions to provide the legal framework our partners are happy with.