BRUSSELS, November 15. /TASS/. NATO will cancel its next summit originally scheduled to be held in Albania in 2027 due to growing tensions within the alliance over defense spending, and the wars in Iran and Ukraine, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
"There is not yet a common position on when the summit will happen, for sure not in 2027," the agency quoted Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama as saying. "In 2028, if it will be a summit, it will be in Tirana."
Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte refrain from a direct answer. "We are flexible with NATO summits," he told AP, adding that NATO hold summits "when we need them."
Prior to 2014, NATO summits had been held twice a year while over the past decade they have been held once a year.
Politico Europe reported earlier, citing its sources that NATO headquarters is wary of holding it in the alliance’s lowest defense-spending nation. According to NATO data, Albania ranked last among the alliance’s 32 members in 2025, spending 1.48% of GDP on defense.
Last July's summit in Ankara was also scaled back significantly to reduce the risk of transatlantic disagreements.