Carney heads to Armenia for European Political Community summit
Prime Minister Mark Carney is heading to armenia on Saturday and will stay in Yerevan until Monday for the European Political Community summit. Carney's office says the visit is focused on Ukraine's defence and on drawing more trade and investment to Europe.
The trip puts Canada in a forum that brings together EU countries, Ukraine, Iceland and Turkey, and Canada is the first non-European country to attend these meetings. The summit has been held twice a year since 2022, after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Yerevan summit agenda
The European Political Community summit is set to touch on strategic co-operation in politics, security and infrastructure. Achim Hurrelmann, co-director of the Centre for European Studies at Carleton University, said, "It's really mainly an attempt to create a forum to talk to each other," and said Carney seems to be attending to advance defence procurement deals with Europe.
Hurrelmann said Carney is primarily interested in meeting EU leaders, leaders from Ukraine and the U.K. all at once. He added that the trip could help Carney identify projects his government could pursue after repeated high-level statements about defence co-operation.
Canada and Armenia
Jean-François Ratelle, a University of Ottawa professor specializing in the Caucasus region, said it is disappointing that the visit does not appear aimed at continuing Canada's years of advocacy for democracy and peace in Armenia. Ratelle said, "We are witnessing a complete change of our foreign policy and what are our general interests," and added, "It's looking for our own interests and our own opportunities, and not playing that leading role in norms, and what used to define Canada."
The visit also lands against a long-running regional dispute: since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought for control of Nagorno-Karabakh. Canada and other countries recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, despite its population being largely ethnic Armenians.
What Carney seeks in Europe
The friction in this trip is clear in the contrast between the summit's broad diplomatic format and the narrower goals described by the two academics. Ratelle pointed to Canada's shift in foreign policy priorities, while Hurrelmann described a practical push for meetings with EU leaders, Ukraine and the U.K. that could lead to concrete defence and investment projects.
For readers tracking Canada's next move, the immediate outcome will be whatever Carney puts on the table in Yerevan over the weekend and the contacts he makes there. The summit itself gives Ottawa a rare seat at a European forum that has met twice a year since 2022.
