European Union leaders, as well as high-level officials from member states converged on Yerevan on Monday to attend the European Political Community summit, which convened at the Karen Demirchyan sports complex on Monday.
President Emmanuel Macron of France, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Great Britain, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, were joined by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine by Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. The prime ministers of Georgia, Spain and the Czech Republic were also in attendance.
Also attending were the EU Council President Antonio Costa, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and other high-level officials from the bloc.
Turkey was represented by its Vice-President Cevdet Yilmaz, while President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan addressed summit via video call and invited those gathered to Baku for the 2028 iteration of the gathering.
Hailing the summit as “historic,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan spoke about his administration’s efforts to negotiate peace in the region through talks with Azerbaijan and the documents signed last year at the White House that included the agreement for the establishment of the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity—TRIPP.
“Now we are on the way to implementing a very important project. It is the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity,” which will contribute to peace by unblocking the routes of the region and creating new international routes from east to west, from south to north, which will significantly contribute to the stability of international supply chains,” Pashinyan told the summit in his welcoming remarks.
“Now we have peace with Azerbaijan,” Pashinyan said. “It has been two years since no one has suffered due to the exchange of fire with Azerbaijan, and these are unprecedented years since our independence.”
“We are now working closely with Azerbaijan to consolidate and institutionalize peace between our two countries. This is the first time that the President of Azerbaijan has participated in an event taking place in Armenia, albeit remotely. But I hope that I will have the opportunity to visit Azerbaijan in 2028, when the 12th Summit of the European Political Community will be held there. By the way, Armenia and Azerbaijan have mutually supported each other’s candidacies to host these summits,” the prime minister added.
Pashinyan also praised himself and his administration for efforts to normalize relations with Turkey, saying that his first-ever meeting with that country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, took place on the sidelines of this very summit in the past.
Addressing its participants, EU Council President Costa said the gathering “places Armenia in the heart of Europe, which is exactly where it belongs.” He also said the choice of the summit venue was made by possible by Armenian-Azerbaijani peace agreements reached last year.
“The fact that Armenia is hosting this summit is a powerful illustration of the country’s courageous geopolitical path, a path that Armenia and the EU are walking together,” Costa told a news conference later in the day.
Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, told reporters that the summit taking place in Armenia demonstrated the importance of the Caucasus, “especially now when there is a war in Iran as well. We are talking about connectivity, but also resilience to the threats that we are facing,” she said.
Yet the main agenda item for Monday’s summit were the challenges facing the EU and the world as the Ukraine war continues to rage on and the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran have complicated security, economic and energy concerns for the bloc.
President Donald Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops from Italy, Germany and other countries, caught European leaders off guard.
“There has been a talk about withdrawal [of] US troops for a long time from Europe. But of course, the timing of this announcement comes as a surprise. I think it shows that we have to really strengthen the European pillar in NATO, and we have to really do more. The American troops are not in Europe only for protecting the European interests, but also American interest,” Kallas said.
The summit will focus solely on EU-Armenian relations on Tuesday.
A draft of a statement expected to be adopted on Tuesday was reviewed by Azatutyun.am. According to the news service, the EU leaders will pledge to continue “bringing Armenia closer to the European Union” but stops short of promising Armenia eventual membership in the EU.
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