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Albania's approach to the Turkish "Sultan" failed to secure NATO Summit candidacy

2026-07-15 17:40:41Politikë SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

Edi Rama's extravagant and expansive style failed to secure Albania's candidacy to host the NATO summit next year, when the alliance's leaders gathered in Ankara.

In the run-up to last week's talks, the Albanian prime minister had lobbied hard to ensure that his country would host the alliance's leaders next year.

He had borrowed so that Albania could meet NATO's minimum requirement of spending 2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defense and promised to contribute to the PURL program, through which allies buy American weapons and send them to Ukraine.

But Rama's behavior at the summit surprised some of the leaders present and did not provide the level of assurance the alliance was seeking, according to people familiar with the private discussions. Rama's office did not respond to a request for comment.

Rama, 62, is the world's tallest head of state, according to Guinness World Records, at 2.01 meters tall. Throughout his career, he has used his physical presence with a sense of theatricality, hugging other leaders, placing his hands on their shoulders or kneeling to whisper something to them.

In Ankara, his signature white sneakers caught the attention of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who pointed them out to Donald Trump during a family photo.

The US president has repeatedly shown his sensitivity towards leaders who do not adhere to the traditional dress code. The most notable case was that of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who showed up to the White House in military uniform last year.

Rutte had been extremely focused on getting the two-day meeting with Trump through without similar incidents, presenting defense contracts worth over $50 billion and repeatedly emphasizing both increased military spending across the alliance and the US's leading role.

The fact that the summit was hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has a special relationship with Trump and is seen as an increasingly important factor in European security, also helped Rutte's efforts. For some officials, the idea of ??an unpredictable leader from one of NATO's lowest-spending countries hosting the upcoming summit posed a risk to its success.

During the closed-door session, Rama surprised some attendees when he addressed Erdogan as “sultan,” according to two people in the room. The comment was apparently a joke that played on the Turkish leader’s image as a strongman. However, it embarrassed some attendees, even though Rama and Erdogan have had a close relationship for more than a decade and have visited each other’s capitals several times.

The Albanian prime minister was also surprisingly forthright in his insistence that Albania host the next NATO summit in 2027, the sources said. He insisted that Mark Rutte had promised him this and suggested that, if there were any problems, he should speak to Donald Trump.

The 2025 NATO summit communiqué predicted that Albania would host a meeting after Turkey, without specifying when it would happen. The statement released after last week's summit did not mention either the date or the location of the next summit.

Albania has promised NATO allies for years that it would increase defense spending to meet its commitments, according to a person familiar with the matter. With Rutte determined to show Trump that European countries are taking more responsibility for their own security, Albania has come under closer scrutiny and has been looking for ways to quickly increase the numbers ahead of the summit.

Loans secured by Albania ahead of the summit include $302 million from the US for arms purchases, a decision approved at a government meeting on June 19 and reported by the official state news agency.

This enabled Albania to cross the 2% threshold in 2026, bringing its defense budget to 2.15% of GDP, according to a report released during the summit. A year earlier, Albania was the NATO country with the lowest defense spending, at just 1.48% of GDP.

Under pressure from Donald Trump, NATO member countries, including Albania, committed last year to increase basic defense spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035.

Rama still has one important card that could help him realize his ambition to host a high-level meeting: the two luxury resorts that the Trump family is developing on the southern coast of Albania.

Rama has supported projects led by Jared Kushner, the US president's son-in-law, despite weeks of protests from environmentalists and anti-corruption activists.

However, none of the resorts are expected to be ready to welcome visitors before the end of Donald Trump's term in 2029.

Bloomberg


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