On June 22, 1991, the American Secretary of State, James Baker, visited Tirana.

This visit of the high American official came in the first days of pluralism, after the fall of the communist dictatorship. The General Directorate of Archives recalls that around 300,000 Albanians gathered in Skanderbeg Square, giving Baker an impressive reception. The people had gathered in the main square of Tirana to hear the speech of the American State Secretary.

“I have been in politics for 14 years and I don’t believe I have ever seen such a reception. This makes everything more extraordinary. This expression of kindness and support comes from what US represents for peoples who for a long time had nothing to hope for,” said Baker, the first high-ranking US official to visit post-communist Albania.

Three months before this visit, the American embassy in Tirana had reopened.

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