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Shkruar nga Ylli Pata
NATO has so far held 36 regular annual summits and 5 extraordinary ones, with a specific theme.
The decision of the heads of state to hold the 2027 NATO summit in Tirana is a done deal. Which means that there is no doubt that it will take place.
It is very likely that this decision will be commented on and circulated on Albanian television panels, in the logic of political polarization within us, to provincialize the political, and above all geopolitical, context of the arrival in Tirana of 32 heads of state and government, of the most powerful political-military organization on the planet, plus the head of NATO and its commander-in-chief.
NATO has so far held 36 regular annual summits and 5 extraordinary ones, with a specific theme.
The largest number of summits is held in Brussels with 12, where NATO has its nerve center, political and military. As was seen for The Hague, in the history of summits, the country of origin of the Secretary General seems to have had its weight. Where summits generally "coincide" with the capital of its CEO.
Just as in The Hague, where NATO met under the leadership of Secretary General Mark Rutte (Dutch), in 1997 it met in Madrid, when it was led by Javier Solana, and so on.
Besides Brussels, the US and the UK take second place with 4 summits, France with 3, Italy with 2 summits, Germany 2, Spain 2, the Netherlands 1, Poland 1, Lithuania 1, Latvia 1 and Portugal 1 summit.
In this story that began in Paris in 1954, from the countries of the old Balkans that are today called "Southeastern Europe", two are those that have hosted NATO summits.
Turkey, a founding member of the North Atlantic Alliance, a super important state in the geopolitics of the Cold War era, but also on today's geopolitical map. A country that has one of the strongest armies in the world, has so far hosted only one NATO summit.
The one in 2004, where the host was Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then prime minister, and the next year-2026, where the president with executive power is again Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Another Southeast European country that has hosted such an important summit is Romania, in 2008, a summit that is very memorable for Albania.
Since it was precisely at the Bucharest summit that the official invitation to admit our country to the Alliance was issued. Romania is a country with an important strategic position, as together with Turkey they are on the eastern border of the North Atlantic Alliance.
Apart from these two countries, no other Balkan state has ever hosted NATO heads of state at an official summit. Not even Greece, which has been a member since 1952 and also has an enviable geopolitical position, as well as one of the best-armed armies on the continent.
Neither Bulgaria, which is also a country with a strong military and important geopolitical interests, nor Croatia and Slovenia, which are consolidated democracies and stable economies, with important alliances in Europe.
If only starting from such a comparative aspect (although it may seem provincial), the decision to hold the NATO summit in Tirana is a super important development.
However, this is just the tip of the iceberg, because the political, geopolitical, strategic, military, and especially economic weight is more important than a "vanity fair" among the Balkans.
In the logic of a small state, for which its connections and image are very important, the decision to hold a NATO summit constitutes a "qualitative leap".
In simple words, in 2027, if we are to wait for the conclusion of negotiations with the EU as stated, Albania will officially end its terribly difficult and long transition, a crushing ordeal, and embark on the path of a finally stabilized Western country.
Meanwhile, injecting this news into those circles that look at everything with a magnifying glass and with extreme caution, namely investors, is likely to be an important incentive.
The first benefit, in all likelihood, will come to tourism, especially the qualitative one, to its growth as it is said on the panels: "exponential". Since this layer is the one that values the level of security the most. A level that Albania has passed in several tourist seasons, but a NATO summit serves more than any advertising campaign in the important world media. Especially for that type of tourism of the wealthy layer.
But will this development also have consequences for the modernization and Europeanization of Albanian politics? In all likelihood, there will be progress in this direction, however, the catalyst for a revolution that now looks better was the reform in justice. Which, in all likelihood, has been highly appreciated by the great Western powers, which have openly, both in words and deeds, appreciated its author and guarantor, who will have the opportunity to organize a "new party", where, as has been shown by the European summits, the participants have taken it quite happily.
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