US President Donald Trump’s repeated blunders when referring to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict became the subject of banter among European leaders on October 2, when Albania’s prime minister joked with fellow European leaders about the confusion.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama was caught on camera joking with French President Emmanuel Macron and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev during the European Political Community (EPC) meeting in Copenhagen.

“You should make an apology to us because you didn’t congratulate us on the peace deal that President Trump made between Albania and Azerbaijan,” Rama told Macron, a video posted on X (formerly Twitter) shows. 

This prompted a laugh from Aliyev, while Macron jokingly responded: “I am sorry for that.”

The EPC summit in Copenhagen brought together leaders of EU members, candidate countries such as Albania and other countries from across the broader European region to discuss support for Ukraine and the security situation in Europe. 

Trump has on several occasions muddled Armenia with Albania when discussing the US-brokered peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The two South Caucasus neighbours signed a deal in Washington in August aimed at ending decades of hostility over Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed region that has seen repeated outbreaks of war. Albania, a Balkan country hundreds of miles away, has no role in the conflict.

Trump first confused the countries during an appearance on a conservative talk show in August, when he described a peace deal between “Aberbaijan and Albania” before correcting himself. 

In September, he told Fox News he had prevented a war between “Azerbaijan and Albania”. At a press conference in the UK later the same month, Trump yet again referred to “Albania” while describing the agreement. He also stumbled over the name of Azerbaijan, pausing before saying “Aber … baijan”.

Later, Trump again inserted a different country into the long-running Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, claiming to have prevented a war between Armenia and Cambodia. 

Speaking at the American Cornerstone Institute Founder's Dinner, Trump credited himself with “stopping the war” between Cambodia and Armenia and warned the conflict “was only beginning and could have had serious consequences”.

The errors have become an awkward counterpoint to Trump’s frequent boasts of his foreign policy record. He has repeatedly cast himself as a global peacemaker, citing his role in easing tensions in conflict zones including India and Pakistan, Serbia and Kosovo, and Egypt and Ethiopia. The White House has echoed the framing, promoting him as a “President of Peace” amid speculation that he is seeking recognition such as the Nobel Peace Prize.