NATO cancels 2027 summit in Albania; Rama confirms from Dublin as Reuters cites objections over low defense spending

Albania will not host the NATO summit in 2027, despite earlier plans to hold it in Tirana. Prime Minister Edi Rama confirmed the news from Dublin, saying member states have yet to agree on a date for the alliance’s next meeting, Reuters reports.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday ahead of a meeting of European leaders, Rama said the summit would not take place in 2027 but left open the possibility that Albania could host it a year later.

“The issue is that there is still no common position on when the summit will take place. Certainly not in 2027. If there is a summit in 2028, it will be held in Tirana,” Rama said.

Reuters wrote that it had reported as early as June that plans to hold the NATO summit in Albania were in doubt because of objections from the administration of US President Donald Trump and dissatisfaction among some member states over Albania’s low level of defense spending.

Meanwhile, NATO is considering changing its recent practice of holding summits every year, which would also affect the schedule of future alliance meetings.

Diplomats say NATO could decide to hold a summit at short notice, but not in Albania.

A NATO official, however, confirmed that Albania remains the planned host of the next summit, although a date has not yet been set.

“The next NATO summit will be held in Albania. A decision on the date has not yet been made,” the official said.

In the declaration adopted at the June 2025 summit in The Hague, NATO leaders said they looked forward to meeting next in Turkey in 2026, followed by a summit in Albania.

However, in the declaration from the summit held in Ankara in July this year, the allies said only that they looked forward to their next meeting, without specifying a date or location.

“We look forward to our next meeting,” the leaders said, without specifying when or where a future summit would take place.