Albania NATO summit in balance as US slams security 'free riders'
Albania’s position as host of next year’s NATO summit is in doubt thanks to the country’s failure to meet key spending milestones.
Euronews previously reported that the draft conclusion for next week’s NATO summit in Ankara omits any mention of holding the next gathering in Albania, despite the summit's location being previously announced.
The withholding of any mention from the final summit declaration is a purposeful move by NATO officials to pressure Albania to step up.
A NATO source confirmed on Wednesday that the situation hasn't changed, and the alliance was sending a "strong message" to Tirana that the country could lose its role as host unless it "steps up and spends".
NATO countries agreed to drastically increase spending to 5 per cent of GDP by 2035 at last year's summit at the Hague. But at its current spend of around 1.49 percent, Tirana is quite a distance away even from NATO’s original defence target of 2 percent.
Albania is not alone, as Slovenia and Czechia have also been identified as not pulling their weight when it comes to boosting collective defence. Although both were listed in NATO’s 2025 report on individual members' spending as having reached the 2 percent mark, NATO sources have told Euronews that these figures were not accurate.
The US has condemned allies it seen as laggards when it comes to defence spending and wants to see evidence that countries are on a “credible” path to reach the 5 percent target within the agreed timeline.
European countries can no longer “free ride” on defence architecture, US Ambassador to NATO Mathew Whitaker told journalists on Wednesday, complaining of "freeriding on American taxpayers – which has been the case by some at the NATO alliance," Whittaker said.
All 32 allies are meeting in Ankara for the annual summit hosted by Turkey on 7-9 July. US President Trump confirmed last week he will be present, as will US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will also attend, along with the leaders of Qatar, UAE and Bahrain.