\t\tRead: 3 min<\/p>\n
European leaders talked up independence on defence and closer ties with Canada Monday, as they gathered in Armenia for a summit clouded by U.S. threats to cut military support.<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump loomed large over the meeting of the European Political Community (EPC) in Yerevan, which was for the first time attended by a non-European leader: Prime Minister Mark Carney.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t think that we\u2019re destined to submit to a more transactional insular and brutal world and gatherings such as these point to a better way forward,\u201d Carney told fellow leaders.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s go-it-alone policies on trade and defence have pushed Canada and Europe closer together, with both now confronting the economic fallout from the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran which has further strained transatlantic ties.<\/p>\n
The Armenia gathering comes days after Washington announced it would pull 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany, whose leader, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, has sparred with Trump over the Middle East conflict.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to step up our military capabilities to be able to defend and protect ourselves,\u201d EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said in Yerevan. The bloc needed \u201cmore independence\u201d in security matters, she added.<\/p>\n
Like Europe, Canada\u2019s economy has been hurt by Trump\u2019s tariffs \u2014 but Carney has remained defiant, emerging as something of a figurehead for countries looking to stand up to the Republican president.<\/p>\n
He has urged middle powers to join forces in the face of a new reality defined by great power competition and a \u201cfading\u201d rules-based order.<\/p>\n
Moving to diversify away from its southern neighbour, Ottawa has become the first non-European country to join the EU\u2019s defence financing scheme, while seeking to increase co-operation on trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re the most European of non-European countries, so there\u2019s many ways that we can work together,\u201d Carney said in Yerevan.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreat to count on friends like Canada!\u201d European Council President Antonio Costa wrote on social media.<\/p>\n
A biannual political forum, the EPC was established on the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron in 2022 in response to the invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
It was \u201cinitially perceived as an anti-Putin club\u201d but Canada\u2019s participation has given it a new \u201canti-Trump slant,\u201d said Sebastien Maillard, a special adviser at the Jacques Delors Institute, a think tank.<\/p>\n
\u2018Stepping up\u2019<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s threats to reduce the U.S. military presence on the continent have reinforced calls for Europe to do more for its own security, as Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s war in Ukraine grinds into a fifth year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis summer will be a moment when Putin decides what to do next, expand the war or move to diplomacy, and we must push him toward diplomacy,\u201d Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the gathering, calling for more sanctions on Moscow.<\/p>\n
NATO chief Mark Rutte admitted Monday there had \u201cbeen some disappointment on the U.S. side\u201d over Europe\u2019s reluctance to get behind the Iran war.<\/p>\n
But Europeans had \u201cheard the message,\u201d were now providing logistical support to U.S. operations and pre-positioning \u201ckey assets close to theatre, for the next phase,\u201d Rutte said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEuropeans are taking their destiny into their own hands, increasing their defence and security spending, and building their own common solutions,\u201d echoed France\u2019s Macron.<\/p>\n
Albania to Britain <\/p>\n
The EPC brings together the members of the European Union and, this time, 21 other countries, from Albania to the U.K.<\/p>\n
EPC summits do not normally produce concrete decisions but offer the opportunity for leaders to exchange in groups and bilaterally.<\/p>\n
Azerbaijan\u2019s President Ilham Aliyev took part via video link, something an EU official said was \u201chighly significant\u201d and reflected progress in ties with bitter rival Armenia after the signing of a peace deal last year.<\/p>\n
The gathering is the first of its kind in the Caucasus and comes as Armenia fosters closer links with Europe while seeking to cautiously loosen itself from Russia\u2019s grasp.<\/p>\n
It will be followed Tuesday by an EU-Armenia summit with the bloc\u2019s chief officials Costa and von der Leyen, who described it as a \u201cmajor milestone\u201d in the country\u2019s rapprochement with Europe.<\/p>\n
Relations between Yerevan and its traditional ally Moscow have become strained in recent years, in part because Russian peacekeepers failed to intervene during military conflicts with Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n
Under Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia has formally pursued a strategy of what he calls \u201cdiversification,\u201d in which the landlocked country pursues ties with both Russia and the West.<\/p>\n
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