The first-ever EU-Armenia summit took place on May 4. Thirty European leaders descended on Yerevan, along with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. These leaders are hoping to capitalize on Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s recent steps away from Russia, seeing this as an opportunity to expand an anti-Russia front in the region and pull Armenia into Europe’s orbit. Russia has historically had a strong relationship with Armenia, including military bases there.
EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said that Europe is “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.”
EU Council President Antonio Costa said, “Today’s EU-Armenia summit sends a clear signal of the EU’s firm commitment to deepen our relations with Armenia, and to strengthen cooperation across many new areas. Bringing Armenia and its people closer to the European Union.”
French President Emmanuel Macron was even more forthright. “Many have long thought that Armenia’s destiny is possible only under the patronage of Russia,” he said. But following the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war with Azerbaijan, when “Russia abandoned Armenia,” Macron claimed, “we understood that greatest dreams are not reality.” He continued: “I would like the Armenian moment to also become the moment of the entire Caucasus. I have two convictions. First, the south Caucasus should not be an arena for the competition of empires, and second, the region can become a crossroads between Europe, Asia and the Middle East,” reported the Guardian.
