{"id":60811,"date":"2026-05-07T10:59:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T10:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/60811\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T10:59:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T10:59:52","slug":"armenia-hosts-a-historic-european-union-summit-as-the-country-charts-a-course-away-from-russia-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/60811\/","title":{"rendered":"Armenia hosts a historic European Union summit as the country charts a course away from Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) \u2014 Armenia hosts its first bilateral summit with the European Union<\/a> on Tuesday, a landmark diplomatic moment for the Caucasus Mountains nation<\/a> that has formally declared its ambition to join the bloc and is cautiously loosening its ties with longtime ally Russia.<\/p>\n

The EU-Armenia summit in Yerevan follows the eighth gathering of the European Political Community, or EPC, which brought dozens of European leaders<\/a> to the Armenian capital on Monday to address European defense issues and the Iran war<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Tuesday’s bilateral meeting saw Armenia and the EU sign a connectivity partnership to strengthen economic ties and deepen security cooperation.<\/p>\n

The two events underscore how Armenia is seeking to turn westward and shed Russia’s influence. Armenia\u2019s relations with Moscow, its longtime sponsor and ally, have grown increasingly strained since 2023, when neighboring Azerbaijan fully reclaimed the Karabakh region<\/a> and ended the decadeslong rule by ethnic Armenian separatists.<\/p>\n

Armenian authorities accused Russian peacekeepers who were deployed to the region of failing to stop Azerbaijan\u2019s onslaught. Moscow, busy with the war in Ukraine<\/a>, rejected the accusations, arguing that its troops didn\u2019t have a mandate to intervene.<\/p>\n

The war was \u201ca belated demonstration that Russia is dangerously unreliable as a partner,\u201d Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Center in Yerevan, told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Pursuing ties with Europe<\/p>\n

Since then, the government of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan<\/a> has pursued closer ties with the West, a move welcomed by the 27-nation EU.<\/p>\n

The opening ceremony of the EU-Armenia summit on Tuesday saw European Council President Ant\u00f3nio Costa walk the red carpet side by side with Pashinyan and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, while a military band played in front of Armenian and EU flags.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re 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\u2019s digital market and turn Armenia\u2019s position at the heart of this region into a motor of growth,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The new EU-Armenia connectivity partnership will focus on strengthening transportation, energy and digital links. Meanwhile, EU investments in Armenia are expected to reach 2.5 billion euros ($2.9 billion) under its global gateway infrastructure program, both sides said in a joint statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s EU-Armenia summit sends a clear signal of the EU\u2019s firm commitment to deepen our relations with Armenia, and to strengthen cooperation across many new areas,\u201d Costa said. \u201cBringing Armenia and its people closer to the European Union.\u201d<\/p>\n

Symbolic moves<\/p>\n

The EU, rather than the United States, has stepped into the vacuum left by Russia, Giragosian said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEU engagement is much more prudent and much more productive than the U.S. becoming involved, simply because European engagement is less provocative to Russia over the longer term,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In 2025, Armenia’s parliament passed a law formally declaring the country\u2019s intention to seek EU membership.<\/p>\n

However, Giragosian described Tuesday\u2019s summit as \u201ca focus on deepening the preexisting relationship\u201d rather than a step toward candidacy, referencing the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement that has governed EU-Armenia ties since fully taking effect in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe symbolic significance is much greater as a message to Russia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Armenia has also taken other symbolic steps. It joined the International Criminal Court in 2023, a move that Moscow condemned as an \u201cunfriendly step.\u201d The court has issued an arrest warrant<\/a> for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Armenia also froze its participation in the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization in 2024.<\/p>\n

However, Armenia remains a member of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union, or EEU, a single market allowing the free movement of goods, capital and labor. The organization also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan \u2014 and Putin has made the trade-offs plain.<\/p>\n

Speaking at talks with Pashinyan in Moscow earlier this year, Putin warned<\/a> that Armenia couldn’t simultaneously belong to both the EEU and the EU, noting that Yerevan currently receives Russian natural gas at prices far below European market rates. Pashinyan acknowledged the incompatibility, but said that Armenia could, for now, combine EEU membership with deepening EU cooperation.<\/p>\n

Pashinyan, who has been in office since 2018 and faces a parliamentary election in June, stands to benefit politically from the international profile of the European meetings. Giragosian said that Pashinyan’s government is likely to be reelected largely by default, with the opposition unable to offer a credible alternative program.<\/p>\n

But Giragosian warned against framing Armenia\u2019s foreign policy as purely a pivot from Russia to the West.<\/p>\n

\u201cArmenia is also pivoting beyond the black and white zero-sum game paradigm,\u201d he said, pointing to significant diplomatic investment in Asia, including with Japan, South Korea and China. \u201cThis is not about replacing Russia with the West. This is much more innovative, much more sophisticated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heightened tensions<\/p>\n

The summit also comes at a moment of diplomatic strains between Azerbaijan and the EU. Azerbaijan\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the EU ambassador last week to protest a European Parliament resolution demanding the release of Armenian prisoners of war and criticizing the treatment of Armenians in Karabakh. Lawmakers in Azerbaijan subsequently voted to suspend all cooperation with the European Parliament.<\/p>\n

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who addressed the EPC conference via video link, accused the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly for the Council of Europe, or PACE, of \u201cdouble standards\u201d for placing sanctions on Azerbaijan’s delegation.<\/p>\n

There were also protests outside the EPC summit venue, which was surrounded by tight security. Demonstrators held photos of Armenian prisoners being held in Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n

Opposition leader Aram Sargsyan, head of the Democratic Party of Armenia, told the Armenian Press Agency that the European officials were voicing support for Pashinyan before the election and have \u201cforgotten about the Armenians in prison in Azerbaijan.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Elise Morton reported from London. Avet Demourian in Yerevan, and Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) \u2014 Armenia hosts its first bilateral summit with the European Union on Tuesday, a landmark…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[3213,2416,36216,30304,939,912,4592,36217,329,397,403],"class_list":{"0":"post-60811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ursula-von-der-leyen","8":"tag-armenia","9":"tag-azerbaijan","10":"tag-european-defense-issues","11":"tag-european-political-community","12":"tag-european-union","13":"tag-moscow","14":"tag-nikol-pashinyan","15":"tag-richard-giragosian","16":"tag-russia","17":"tag-summit","18":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116532951282117454","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}