European leaders meet in Albania to debate security concerns against Russia-Ukraine war backdrop

TIRANA, Albania -- The leaders of 47 European countries and organizations will gather Friday for a one-day summit in the Albania's capital to discuss security and defense challenges across the continent, with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine at the top of the agenda.

The theme of the European Political Community, or EPC, summit in Tirana is “New Europe in a new world: unity — cooperation — joint action.” The gathering will also address ways to improve the continent’s competitiveness and tackle unauthorized migration.

But the EPC will also be a setting for leaders to meet bilaterally, or in small groups, to weigh in on major security issues. The inaugural summit in Prague in 2022 saw the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia holding rare talks in an effort to ease tensions between the longtime adversaries.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is among the leaders invited to the event in Tirana. On the eve of the summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin spurned an offer by Zelenskyy to meet face-to-face in Turkey to try to secure a ceasefire with Moscow.

Last weekend, Zelenskyy hosted French President Emmanuel Macron, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Kyiv, where they made a joint call for a 30-day end to hostilities.

“As Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine continues, its consequences stretch far beyond Ukraine’s borders, straining our security and testing our collective resilience,” Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and European Council President António Costa wrote in their EPC summit invitation letter.

The last summit, hosted by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an ardent supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump, was dominated by the concerns and opportunities that might arise in the wake of Trump's reelection.

Rama's governing Socialist Party won Albania’s May 11 parliamentary election, attracting voters who support the country’s long and somewhat uphill effort to join the European Union. The vote secured a fourth term for Rama.

The prime minister said that the summit is a point of pride for Albania, and an “inspiration and motivation to continue further on.”

His Socialist Party says it can deliver EU membership in five years.

The EPC forum is Macron's brainchild, and was backed by former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, aiming to boost security and prosperity across the continent. But critics claimed it was an attempt by them to put the brakes on EU enlargement.

The 2022 inaugural summit involved the EU's 27 member countries, aspiring partners in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, as well as neighbors like the U.K. — the only country to have left the EU — and Turkey.

Russia is the one major European power not invited, along with Belarus, its neighbor and supporter in the war with Ukraine.

The next EPC meeting will take place in Denmark later this year.

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Lorne Cook reported from Brussels.