Group photo of the 7th EPC Summit on October 2, 2025 in Copenhagen, Denmark
The presence of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the European Political Community meeting in Yerevan is seen as part of an effort to build new relations after the rupture with the USA.
Canada will become the first non-European country to participate in a meeting of the European Political Community, when the Prime Minister Mark Carney join this Monday’s summit of the organization.
The eighth meeting of the CPE, which will bring together leaders from more than 48 nations across the continent, will take place in Yerevan, Armenia, under the motto “Building the future: unity and stability in Europe”, and will be co-chaired by Antonio Costaas president of the European Council, a press release from the organization.
Carney says he is determined to build a new alliance network commercial and diplomatic relations after the loss of North American markets under the presidency of Donald Trump.
Its presence also represents a show of western support to Armenia in its efforts to distance itself from Russia at a time when Washington’s stance toward Moscow’s opponents such as Ukraine is ambiguous at best, says the .
Canadian diplomats, however, rejected suggestions that Canada might seek join the European Unionone recurrently.
This is, in fact, one that The Economist addressed in January last year, in a political analysis in which it explains “why Canada should join the European Union”.
Trump’s plan over the next year and the economic impact on Western economies of a protracted conflict between the US and Iran will be among the main topics of discussion in Yerevan.
Yerevan was chosen to host the CPE as a way of giving Armenia the opportunity to highlight its increasingly stronger ties with Europeand thus continue your slow distancing from Russia, its former protectorsays The Guardian.
The Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyanhas followed a diversification policy that, in practice, is slowly attracting your country to European orbit.
Your party, the Civil Contract, faces legislative elections in June and seeks a significant victory to be able to continue efforts to achieve peace with Azerbaijan. Pashinyan faces 3 opposition parties most favorable to Russia.
Armenia, a nation of 3 million people located in the South Caucasus, a hinge zone between Europe and Asia, along with Georgia and Azerbaijan. signed a comprehensive partnership agreement with the EU in 2017.
Last year, it adopted a law that formally declared its intention to become apply to join the bloc, taking the country in a very different political direction than neighboring Georgia.
Armenia is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, led by Russiaand the Collective Security Treaty Organization (OTSC), an alliance also led by Moscow, although it has frozen its participation in the latter in 2024.
Vladimir Putin stated in April that Armenia could not be a member of both the EU and the CSTO. “It’s simply impossible by definition“, said the Russian president.
Macron has been the main defender of closer ties between Europe and Armenia, and his presence at the Yerevan summit is being treated with importance in terms of a state visit.
The CPE, created in 2022, brings together the full members of the EU and the vast constellation of countries outside the Brussels bloc, including the United Kingdom, Turkey, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Serbia.
The organization has already met seven times. The next summit will take place in Ireland in November 2026.
