\u201cI am very happy that they came to visit us,\u201d said House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial, referring to Albanian Ambassador Fatos Tarifa and Dr. David Funderburk, who recently left the CNMI after a brief but enjoyable stay. <\/p>\n
Fatos Tarifa is the Albanian ambassador to the United States, Mexico, and Panama. David Funderburk, who accompanied Tarifa, was the U.S. ambassador to Romania. He is also a former U.S. congressman from North Carolina. Both men hold doctorate degrees and have lectured at various universities. <\/p>\n
Fitial noted that the two men \u201cwere very happy to meet our people and see Saipan and Tinian.\u201d The Speaker also mentioned that the two dignitaries would like to return to the Marianas again. They plan to visit Rota next time.<\/p>\n
The trip to Saipan had been an historic first for Tarifa, who joked that he was probably \u201cthe first Albanian to visit Saipan in 3,000 years.\u201d <\/p>\n
Fitial invited Tarifa and Funderburk to visit the CNMI back in May of this year. He accompanied the two dignitaries throughout most of their tour of Saipan and Tinian. <\/p>\n
The Speaker noted that the two guests had \u201ca great time\u201d and enjoyed the local hospitality, \u201cfeeling right at home, communicating warmth and goodwill to the people they met.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI am happy that we can establish such friendship and cultural exchange with the people of Albania through Dr. Tarifa,\u201d said the Speaker. \u201cThis was also an opportunity to display the warmth and hospitality of our culture and people to our distinguished guests,\u201d added the Speaker. <\/p>\n
Fitial expressed thanks to 2004 Miss CNMI-World Tracy DelRosario and 2004 Miss CNMI South Pacific Louiena Pangelinan for serving as CNMI goodwill ambassadors by volunteering their time to greet and host the two dignitaries. He also commended the Senate and the Governor\u2019s Office, as well as the Department of Public Safety and his colleagues in the House, for helping to make our dignitaries feel safe and welcome. <\/p>\n
\u201cI also thank Thomas J. Camacho of the Disabilities Council for facilitating Ambassador Tarifa\u2019s visit,\u201d said the Speaker. \u201cTom is also a great ambassador for the CNMI.\u201d (PR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI am very happy that they came to visit us,\u201d said House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial, referring to Albanian Ambassador Fatos Tarifa and Dr. David Funderburk, who recently left the CNMI after a brief but enjoyable stay. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84730\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}