Balkans
Edi Rama: The NATO summit will not be held in Tirana in 2027 – allies object to Albania’s low defence spending
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said in Dublin that NATO’s next summit will not take place in Albania in 2027, as planned. Reports say Trump administration objections and allies’ unhappiness with Albania’s low defence spending put the Tirana plan in doubt.
NATO’s next summit will not be held in Albania in 2027, as had been planned. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said so himself on Thursday, November 12 in Dublin, before the European Political Community summit. “There is not yet a common position on when the summit will be, certainly not in 2027”, Mr Rama said, adding: “And in 2028, if there is a summit, it will be in Tirana”. A NATO official said the next summit “will be held in Albania” and that the date has not yet been decided.
From The Hague to Ankara and beyond
In the declaration of the Hague Summit in June 2025, the Alliance’s leaders wrote that they look forward to meeting in Turkey in 2026 and then in Albania. The declaration of the Ankara Summit in July 2026 mentioned neither a time nor a place for the next meeting. Since June there had been reports that the plans for Tirana had been put in doubt because of objections from the Trump administration and dissatisfaction among NATO members over Albania’s low defence spending, at a time when the Alliance has set a target of 5% of GDP.
NATO is also discussing whether to end the practice of recent years of holding a summit every year. Such a change could also head off a possibly tense meeting with Donald Trump in the coming years of his term. Diplomats say the Alliance could nevertheless convene a summit at short notice during the year, but not in Tirana.
Pressure at home for Rama
The announcement comes at a difficult moment for Mr Rama, who has governed for 13 years and faces months of protests. The mobilisations began in May, when the government gave preliminary approval to a luxury tourism complex, backed by Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law, in the protected Vjosa-Narta wetland at Zvërnec and on the neighbouring island of Sazan. The movement, which became known as the “Flamingo Revolution”, grew into wider anti-government protests demanding his resignation over alleged corruption, while in October there were violent student protests over conditions at universities.
On October 29, opposition MPs led by Sali Berisha disrupted a session of Parliament with flares and smoke bombs in support of the protesters. Mr Rama refuses to resign and says the complex complies with Albanian and European law. Albania is meanwhile advancing its EU accession negotiations, where it has closed four of the 33 chapters. The date of NATO’s next summit remains to be decided by the allies.
