NATO will not hold a summit in Albania next year, despite previous plans to organize it, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama declared on Thursday.
Reuters news agency reported in June that plans to host an Alliance summit in Albania next year had been called into question due to opposition from the Trump administration and dissatisfaction among some NATO member states over Albania's low defense spending.
Speaking in Dublin, ahead of a meeting of European leaders, Rama said: "The point is that there is still no common position on when the summit will take place. Certainly not in 2027."
He added: "While in 2028, if there is a summit, it will be held in Tirana."
NATO has been considering the possibility of discontinuing its recent practice of holding summits every year.
Such a move could avoid a potentially tense confrontation with US President Donald Trump in the remainder of his term.
However, diplomats say the Alliance may still decide to organize a summit at short notice during 2026, but not in Tirana.
A NATO official stated on Thursday that: “The next NATO summit will be held in Albania. The decision on the date has not yet been made.”
In the declaration adopted during the NATO summit in June 2025, in The Hague, Alliance leaders wrote:
“We look forward to our next meeting in Turkey in 2026, which will be followed by a meeting in Albania.”
But in the declaration adopted during the Alliance summit in Ankara in July of this year, the leaders only stated:
"We look forward to our next meeting," without specifying the time or location of the next summit. / Taken from Reuters