NATO promised its next summit to Albania. Albania’s prime minister now says it will not happen in 2027

For a small country that joined NATO in 2009, hosting the alliance’s leaders would have been a coming-of-age moment. Albania’s prime minister has now conceded it will not happen next year.

Speaking in Dublin on Thursday, ahead of a gathering of European leaders, Edi Rama said there was not yet a common position on when the summit would take place, “for sure not in 2027”. If there is a summit in 2028, he said, it will be in Tirana.

A NATO official said the next summit “will be held in Albania”, but that the date had not been decided.

Why is the summit slipping?

Plans for Tirana were first thrown into doubt in June, amid reported resistance from the Trump administration and dissatisfaction among NATO members with how little Albania spends on defence. That matters more than ever inside an alliance that agreed at The Hague in 2025 to push spending towards 5 per cent of GDP.

When NATO leaders met in Ankara in July, their final declaration did not mention a time or a place for the next meeting, a notable silence after the Hague text had named Albania.

Diplomats say NATO could still hold a short-notice summit this year, but not in Tirana.

Is NATO giving up on yearly summits?

It has been considering it. Leaders have met every year since 2021, but the alliance is weighing an end to annual summits. Skipping 2027 would also spare members a potentially tense meeting with Trump, whose criticism of allies’ spending has dominated recent gatherings.

What is happening in Albania?

Rama, in power for 13 years, has faced months of protests. They began in May after he gave preliminary approval to a luxury resort backed by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, in the protected Vjosa-Narta wetland at Zvernec and on nearby Sazan Island.

The protests, dubbed the “Flamingo Revolution”, grew into broader anti-government demonstrations demanding his resignation over alleged corruption. Violent student protests over university conditions followed in October, and on 29 October opposition MPs led by Sali Berisha disrupted parliament with flares and smoke bombs.

Rama has refused to resign. He says the resort complies with Albanian and EU law, and his government has dismissed the protests as orchestrated by political rivals.

Why does it matter to Australia?

Australia is one of NATO’s four Indo-Pacific partners, alongside Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, and has sent leaders or ministers to recent summits. A thinner summit calendar means fewer moments for Canberra to sit at the table as Europe’s security and the Indo-Pacific become more closely linked.