Armenia hosts historic EU summit as it charts course away from Russia
Armenia hosts its first bilateral summit with the European Union on Tuesday, a landmark diplomatic moment for the Caucasus Mountains nation that has formally declared its ambition to join the bloc and is cautiously loosening its ties with longtime ally Russia.
The EU-Armenia summit in Yerevan follows the eighth gathering of the European Political Community, which brought dozens of European leaders to the Armenian. The officials addressed European security issues and the US-Israeli war in Iran in remarks.
The two meetings underscore how Armenia is seeking to turn westward and shed Russia’s influence. Armenia’s relations with Moscow, its longtime sponsor and ally, have grown increasingly strained since 2023, when neighbouring Azerbaijan fully reclaimed the Karabakh region and ended the decades-long rule by ethnic Armenian separatists.
Armenian authorities accused Russian peacekeepers who were deployed to the region of failing to stop Azerbaijan’s onslaught. Moscow, busy with its war in Ukraine, rejected the accusations, arguing that its troops didn’t have a mandate to intervene.
The war was “a belated demonstration that Russia is dangerously unreliable as a partner,” Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Centre in Yerevan, said.
Since then, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Government has pursued closer ties with the West, a move welcomed by the EU. In remarks to the EPC conference on Monday, EU Council President Antonio Costa thanked Pashinyan for “the courageous political decisions he has taken to bring Armenia closer to the European Union”.
“The direction of travel is unmistakable,” Costa said, stressing that it was “vital to strengthen Armenian democracy and fight external interference and misinformation”.
The opening ceremony of the EU-Armenia summit on Tuesday saw Costa walk the red carpet side-by-side with Pashinyan and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, while a military band played against a background of Armenian and EU flags.
In her opening statement, von der Leyen said that Europe was ready to aid Armenia in becoming a regional hub for global trade routes, including the building of physical infrastructure.
“We’re ready to invest in the local energy production and the energy links across the Black Sea, and we are ready to connect your booming digital scene to Europe’s digital market and turn Armenia’s position at the heart of this region into a motor of growth,” she said.
Armenia joined the International Criminal Court, a move Moscow condemned as an “unfriendly step”. The court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Putin, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.
