Albania’s Rama rules out Tirana NATO summit in 2027
Prime Minister Edi Rama says a NATO summit in Tirana will not take place in 2027, while the alliance says Albania will host its next summit on a date still to be decided.
By Marina Weber ·
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has said Tirana will not host a NATO summit in 2027 as previously planned, leaving the timing uncertain as his government faces criticism over defence spending and months of protests at home. NATO says Albania remains the location for its next summit, although no date has been settled.
Speaking in Dublin on Thursday before a gathering of European leaders, Rama said members had not reached a common position on the timing and ruled out 2027. He said Tirana would host in 2028 if a summit took place that year. A NATO official separately confirmed Albania as the next host but said the date remained undecided.
Questions about the planned gathering had emerged earlier this year. Reuters reported in June that opposition from US President Donald Trump’s administration, alongside dissatisfaction among NATO members over Albania’s low defence spending, had cast doubt on the plans.
The alliance’s previous declarations have offered different levels of detail about future meetings. At their June 2025 summit in The Hague, NATO leaders said they expected to meet in Turkiye in 2026 and then in Albania. The declaration issued after the July summit in Ankara, however, did not identify either a date or a location for the next gathering.
NATO has also been considering moving away from its recent pattern of annual summits, a change that could avert a potentially tense meeting with Trump later in his term. According to Reuters, diplomats said a summit could still be arranged at short notice in 2026, though it would not be held in Tirana.
At home, Rama, who has held office for 13 years, has faced protests since May. The demonstrations began after he granted preliminary approval for a luxury resort backed by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in the protected Vjosa-Narta wetland at Zvernec on Albania’s southern coast and on nearby Sazan Island.
Known as the “Flamingo Revolution”, the movement expanded into broader protests calling for Rama’s resignation over alleged corruption. Violent student protests over university conditions followed in October. On October 29, opposition lawmakers led by Sali Berisha used flares and smoke bombs to disrupt parliament in support of the protesters.
Rama has rejected demands to step down and maintains that the resort meets Albanian and European Union legal requirements. His government has described the protests as organised by political opponents.
