Abdi Baleta, one of the first figures of political pluralism in Albania and a former career diplomat, has passed away at the age of 84.

Baleta was a politician, diplomat, and academic. He was also a co-founder of the Democratic Party.

Born in 1941 in the village of Gur i Bardh, Mat, he studied international relations in Moscow and graduated in law from the University of Tirana in 1964.

Until 1983, he served in Albania’s diplomatic corps, working as an official and director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and later as ambassador and representative of Albania to the UN in New York. He then became chairman of the District Court in Pogradec (1983–1987) and taught international law at the Faculty of Law (1987–1995).

From 1991 to 1996, Baleta served as a Democratic Party MP in the Albanian Parliament.

In 1994, he left the Democratic Party and founded another political force, which he named “National Recovery.”

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