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Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The Albanian Prime Minister has been presenting the NATO Summit in Tirana for months as the moment when Donald Trump will visit Albania. But the American president has hinted that he is no longer interested in Alliance summits, while the organization of the summit in Tirana itself remains unformalized...
For Edi Rama, the decision to hold the NATO Summit in Tirana was not simply a diplomatic event. He has been selling it for months as a personal foreign policy success, repeating in several public appearances that Donald Trump will come to Tirana in 2027.
But the statement the US president made today from Ankara may have significantly dampened these expectations.
" I was very disappointed with NATO and, frankly, if the summit had not been held in Turkey, where my friend is a very strong leader, I probably would not have attended ," Trump said before meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The message is clear. Trump hinted that his participation in NATO summits is no longer taken for granted and that this time the trip to Ankara was also influenced by his personal relationship with Erdoğan.
The declaration comes at an even more delicate moment for Albania.
For weeks, international media have been reporting that the NATO Summit in Tirana itself may not take place at all. Reuters reported, citing Alliance diplomats, that the draft declaration for the Ankara summit no longer mentions Albania as the host country for the next summit. Radio Free Europe also confirmed from diplomatic sources that Tirana is missing from the draft being negotiated.
According to reports, the uncertainty is related to two main reasons. The first is the dissatisfaction of some allies, especially the United States, with the level of defense spending by Albania. The second is related to the desire of the US administration to reduce the number of NATO summits.
This represents a sharp turn compared to the atmosphere of a year ago. At the Hague Summit, Alliance leaders declared that after Turkey, the summit would be held in Albania. It was precisely on this decision that Rama built an important part of his political narrative, presenting the organization of the summit as a historic achievement for the country and speaking several times about Donald Trump's visit to Tirana.
However, recent developments show that even organizing the summit is no longer a closed issue.
The Albanian government has responded by increasing defense funding. Through budget changes, the executive announced that defense spending will reach 2.6 percent of GDP, in an effort to meet its commitments to the Alliance.
But even if Tirana manages to retain the right to organize the summit, Trump's statement today raises another question: will the American president himself be present?
For the first time, Trump publicly admitted that he is not enthusiastic about NATO summits and hinted that his presence in Ankara was more related to the relationship with Erdoğan than to the Alliance itself.
If this stance remains unchanged in the coming years, then the risk for Edi Rama is not only that the NATO Summit will not take place in Tirana. The risk is that even if it does take place, the figure on whom he has built his political expectations will not be there at all. / Pamphlet
Po mbase palloshi I Mbush menjen trampit qe pervec sazanit e zvernecin ti jape edhe shijakun e rrashbullin e noshta vjen trampi po eshte gjalle akoma deri ne 2027