Ambassador,
Excellencies,
Dear friends,

It is a privilege to be part of this exhibition, dedicated to a woman whose name needs no introduction, in this room, in this country or anywhere in the world: Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, whom the world came to know, and to venerate, as Mother Teresa.

Our beloved Mother Teresa is everywhere in Albania. It is a name we grow up with. And it is the first name visitors encounter at the main entry door, the airport.

The title of this exhibition, “Shared heritage”, could not be more fitting: because no single word, no single flag, no single territory capture what she was and continues to be.

Born in Skopje, to an Albanian family she left at eighteen years old, choosing instead to give her entire life to the poorest and the most needy of Calcutta.

Honoured in 1979 with the Nobel Peace Prize, she raised to the altars as a saint of the whole Catholic world. And along the way she became something more: a name recognized, and a heritage revered, on every continent, by people who could maybe not place Albania on a map, but who knew, instantly, who Mother Teresa was.

So where does Mother Teresa belong to?

To Skopje, where she was born.

To the Albanian nation, whose language she spoke and whose identity she carried with her.

To Calcutta and to India, where she built the work of her life with her own hands.

To the Catholic Church, which raised her to its altars.

And, in the end, to humanity itself.

That, colleagues, is the deeper meaning of a shared heritage. It is not heritage divided in small pieces; It is heritage multiplied: the more hands it passes through, the richer it becomes for everyone who holds it. We are honoured that so much of the world shares her together with us.

There is an important lesson to draw out of her life: Nowadays, in too many places it has become fashionable to define identity through division than by what people may hold in common.

Mother Teresa offers the opposite. She measured a human being not by nationality, religion or the passport, but by their need, and by their dignity.

She identified herself as the Mother of small things done with great love. But feeding one man, holding one dying woman’s hand, teaching one child to read, were never small to the person receiving them. To them, they were the whole world.

Mother Teresa asked for no monument beyond her work continuing after her. If asked, she might have objected to the organization of this exhibition.

Yet, this is in a modest way, part of that continuation, carrying her story forward to a generation that badly needs the reminder that love, given without condition, constitutes also a most powerful form of diplomacy.

On a more personal note, I am proud to have been, in 2012, part of the effort that led to the adoption, by consensus, of a UN General Assembly resolution proclaiming 5 September,  the day Mother Teresa passed away, as the International Day of Charity.

Because charity she emboded.

I am therefore pleased that the Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity are with us today.

Your daily service is the continuation Mother Teresa wanted, keeping alive the values she embodied, and I thank you for your dedication.

Before ending, I would like to recall that this year we will celebrate 70 years of diplomatic relations with India.

Over these seven decades, our two countries have built a relationship characterized by friendship, mutual respect, and constructive cooperation.

We are determined to continue strengthening this partnership through more frequent political dialogue, deeper economic cooperation, and enhanced collaboration in addressing regional and global challenges.

We have work to do, Ambassador.

Let me finally thank the Embassy of India, the Centre for Openness and Dialogue for bringing this exhibition to the Albanian public and for the kind invitatation to be part of it today.

Thank you