President Donald Trump has been blunt about what he expects from allies: spend more on defense, protect strategic infrastructure and go after the criminal networks that move drugs and launder dirty money through their countries. Those are not unreasonable asks. They are the prerequisites of being taken seriously.
This is no longer abstract. On August 27, Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby told the ambassadors of all 32 NATO members in Brussels that the alliance must adapt, as part of a six-month review of American forces in Europe designed to push European allies toward primary responsibility for their own conventional defense. Washington has sent allies a questionnaire asking them to show what they are actually contributing.
Every member is being asked to answer for itself. Albania should ask honestly whether it can pass that test. Albania should be an easy case.
Its people are among the most pro-American on the planet. We sit on the Adriatic, across from Italy, at the gateway to the Balkans. We should be exactly the kind of partner Washington wants.
But loving America and being a reliable ally to America are two different things, and right now we are failing the second test. At NATO's summit in The Hague last year, allied leaders declared that they looked forward to meeting in Turkey in 2026, followed by a meeting in Albania. This July, in Ankara, the declaration said only that leaders look forward to their next meeting.
Secretary-General Mark Rutte confirmed afterward that the next summit will be held in Albania, but there is still no date, and the reason the language disappeared is not a mystery. reported days before Ankara that resistance from the Trump administration and dissatisfaction among allies over Albania's defense spending had thrown the summit into doubt. That is not a diplomatic embarrassment. It is a credibility problem, and it belongs to Albania's socialist government, which has spent more than a decade taking American support for granted while weakening our country from within.
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