 |
| Edi Rama is seen in front, while Emmanuel Macron and Ilham Aliyev both have their backs to the screen, listening to him. |
In a video now circulating on social media, Rama greets French President Emmanuel Macron with a perfectly timed jab. With a straight face and tongue-in-cheek delivery, he tells Macron: “You should apologize, here, to both of us, because you didn’t congratulate us for the peace deal President Trump made between Albania and Azerbaijan.”
Cue the collective chuckle from the audience—because, of course, Albania has never been at war with Azerbaijan.
This was no random joke. Rama was cleverly referencing Trump’s recent slip-up during an interview with Fox News. Attempting to highlight his supposed achievements in ending global conflicts, Trump claimed that he had stopped a war between “Azerbaijan and Albania.” For those keeping score, the actual conflict was between Azerbaijan and Armenia—an entirely different country, in both name and geography.
The former U.S. president, who often prides himself on his deal-making prowess, lumped Albania into the wrong side of the Caucasus. If world politics were a geography test, Trump would have flunked in the first five minutes.
To be fair, this isn’t Trump’s first tango with mispronunciations and mix-ups. His track record includes struggles with names like “Azerbaijan” and “Armenia,” often sounding like a man trying to order off a menu in a language he doesn’t understand. But this latest gaffe was so spectacularly misplaced that it practically wrote Rama’s joke for him.
The irony is that Trump made the claim while boasting about resolving seven conflicts in the first six months of his second presidential term—never mind that he doesn’t currently hold one. For a man who measures success in “the greatest deals ever made,” confusing two completely different nations is, well, not the greatest look.
Meanwhile, Rama’s jab shows just how quickly Balkan leaders can turn a global blooper into a local punchline. With Albania frequently trying to assert itself on the European stage, Rama’s ironic commentary reminded the world that humor can sometimes cut sharper than diplomacy.
Macron, for his part, appeared amused—though perhaps wondering whether his role at this summit had suddenly shifted from policymaker to audience member.
In the grand scheme of things, the Copenhagen Summit was supposed to focus on serious issues: energy security, migration, and Europe’s place in an increasingly unstable world. Instead, thanks to Trump’s cartographic creativity and Rama’s sharp tongue, the spotlight briefly shifted to a peace agreement that never existed.
Perhaps the lesson here is that while wars end with diplomacy, political gaffes end with memes. And when it comes to viral moments, Trump and Rama might just have given us the most unexpected collaboration of the week.