Military manpower—reaching military age annually:
males: 32,954 (1999 est.)

Military expenditures—dollar figure: $60 million (1998)

Military expenditures—percent of GDP: 2% (1998)

Transnational Issues

Disputes—international: the Albanian Government supports protection of the rights of ethnic Albanians outside of its borders but has downplayed them to further its primary foreign policy goal of regional cooperation; Albanian majority in Kosovo seeks independence from Serbian Republic; Albanians in The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia claim discrimination in education, access to public-sector jobs, and representation in government

Illicit drugs: increasingly active transshipment point for Southwest Asian opiates, hashish, and cannabis transiting the Balkan route and—to a far lesser extent—cocaine from South America destined for Western Europe; limited opium and cannabis production; ethnic Albanian narcotrafficking organizations active and rapidly expanding in Europe

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@Algeria ———-

Geography

Location: Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Morocco and Tunisia