Armenia Gets Time In The Spotlight As European Leaders Gather In Yerevan
by Rikard Jozwiak · Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty · JoinThe Armenian capital, Yerevan, will get a rare opportunity to be the center of global attention when dozens of world leaders -- and the NATO chief -- gather in the south Caucasus nation for two European-led summits beginning this week.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Antonio Costa, president of the European Council, will serve as hosts for more than 40 leaders and officials, mainly from EU countries, for the European Political Community (EPC) summit on May 4.
The following day, EU chiefs will conduct a summit between the bloc and Armenia, a landlocked nation of just under 3 million people that is still recovering from a decades-long conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan.
SEE ALSO:
Wider Europe Briefing: The EU's First-Ever Armenia Summit
The EPC is a loose grouping of all European states excluding Belarus, Russia, and the Vatican. It has been meeting at the leaders’ level twice a year since French President Emmanuel Macron conceived the format in 2022, shortly after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Macron arrived in Yerevan on May 3.
With NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, plus the presidents of all major EU institutions expected, the Armenian capital will be hosting more political VIPs than the small South Caucasus republic has ever seen before.
British PM Seeks To Support Ukraine Loan
Major announcements are rare at EPC summits, but British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is now expected to inform that London wants to work with the EU to support Ukraine in getting funding for vital military equipment.
The British government on May 3 said the country is set to enter talks to cooperate with the EU in its $106 billion loan to Kyiv, as London looks to deepen ties to the bloc -- which it left in 2020 -- amid uncertainties about US commitment to the cause.
Otherwise, much of the focus of the summit will fall on host Armenia, giving Pashinyan a run in the spotlight just a month ahead of parliamentary elections -- which he is favored to win.
The EPC gathering and the subsequent EU-Armenia summit will likely allow Pashinyan a chance to further burnish his credentials as an international statesman.
SEE ALSO:
Zelenskyy Says Ukraine's War Position 'Most Stable' In Months As EU Approves Funds
As one senior EU official gushed ahead of the meeting: “It's the first time the EPC meets in the south Caucasus. And the fact that Europe is coming together in Armenia is a powerful illustration of the country's geopolitical path.”
Brussels is still far from offering a path to EU membership for Armenia, but the decision to travel to the country for the summit is a least a symbolic gesture highly appreciated by the government in Yerevan.
Yet everything is not rosy. Much to the annoyance of the EU side, it looks as if there won’t be any questions from the media after the EPC and the EU-Armenia summits -- only press statements.
EU officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told RFE/RL that this was at the insistence of the host nation and is likely an attempt by Yerevan to guarantee the events are as tightly choreograph as possible.
Ukraine's Zelenskyy Arrives
Amid heightened security, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in the Armenian capital late on May 3 for the EPC summit.
Writing on Telegram, Zelenskyy said his goals would be to move closer to a “dignified” end to the war with Russia, to push forward the $106 billion support package for Ukraine, and “strengthening Ukrainian air defense and energy support for Ukraine and cooperation with partners in the field of energy.”
Zelenskyy's appearance is not likely to go over well in Moscow. Armenia was long an ally to Russia as Yerevan considered it as somewhat of a protector against hostile neighbors. But Pashinyan, since becoming Armenian leader in May 2018, has looked to carefully edge his country closer to the West.
It was not immediately clear if Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev would attend. Both countries have historical and current political differences with the host, although the sides have in recent years attempted to improve relations.
Officials say the most likely scenario is that Aliyev will address the other leaders via video link, while Ankara could send Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, a stepdown from the presidential level that Yerevan has opposed.
But one new face is a certainty -- that of the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, marking the first time a non-European leader will attend an EPC meeting, having been invited as a guest by Pashinyan and Costa.
But it might just be that Canada will become a permanent EPC fixture, with one European diplomat likening it to Australia’s yearly participation in the Europe-wide Eurovision song contest after initially having been invited as a one-off in 2015.
Another senior EU official stated that “Canada is very much like-minded with Europe in the way it looks at geopolitics and security, it shares the same principles, a belief in the rules-based international order anchored into international law, and the same goals, the defense of that order through multilateralism with the UN at its core.”
Armenia Gets Time In The Spotlight As European Leaders Gather In Yerevan
Share
Share