NATO is scaling back its high-level meetings and will not hold a leaders' summit in Albania next year as previously planned, amid tension within the alliance over defence spending, Iran and the war in Ukraine. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said that "there is not yet a common position on when the summit will happen, for sure not in 2027," adding that "in 2028, if it will be a summit, it will be in Tirana," the Albanian capital.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte played down the issue. "We are flexible with NATO summits," he told The Associated Press in an interview, adding "We have summits when we need them" and that the next one will be held "when a necessity is there." Until about a decade ago, NATO held summits every two years.S1S2

The cutbacks extend beyond gatherings involving U.S. President Donald Trump and his counterparts. NATO defence ministers usually meet in October, but no talks took place last month and none are planned for October 2027. Foreign ministers have only one scheduled meeting next year instead of two, under what NATO describes as a "reorganization package." U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have each skipped a NATO meeting or left before talks ended since taking office, and Hegseth has used defence ministerial gatherings to berate or cajole European allies and Canada.S2

The planned Albania summit highlights the alliance's challenges. Albania was appointed next year's host in 2025, but its name was removed from a July summit declaration. Some allies believe Albania is not spending enough on defence and were reluctant to reward it with NATO's major event. The Tirana government is projected to spend 2.15% of its gross domestic product on defence this year, against NATO's target for its 32 allies to spend 3.5% of GDP on core defence by 2035 and 1.5% on defence-related infrastructure. Albania is not the worst offender, with Spain, Belgium and Slovenia faring much worse.S1S2

Hosting a summit carries heavy financial and political costs. The Netherlands required a year of preparation and roughly $100 million in investment for the 2025 meeting in The Hague. Officials said NATO would have needed to decide on Albania by October to have enough time to organise a summit next year. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who hosted this year's gathering in his palace complex in Ankara, refurbished a military airport for leaders to arrive at and mobilised tens of thousands of security personnel, virtually shutting down parts of the capital, while non-essential public workers were given a week off.S2