Il Canada sarà il primo paese non europeo al vertice EPC mentre Carney cerca alleati | Il Guardiano

Although 70% of the article is about Armenia-EU relations, of course the title would mention anything but Armenia. Relevant excerpts:

> Yerevan was chosen to host the EPC – an institution championed the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and which also includes the UK – to give Armenia a chance to showcase its strengthening links with Europe, and so continue its slow decoupling from Russia, its former backer.

> Armenia’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, has pursued a policy of diversification that in practice is slowly drawing his country into the European ambit. His Civil Contract party is facing parliamentary elections in June, and is seeking a big win so he can continue efforts to make a peace with Azerbaijan. Pashinyan faces three opposition parties more sympathetic to Russia.

> The day after hosting the EPC, Yerevan hopes the first bilateral summit between Armenia and the EU on Tuesday will result in the bloc offering extra funding to promote democracy as well as visa liberalisation. When the EU’s enlargement commissioner, Marta Kos, visited the country in March, she declared that “Armenia and the EU have never been closer”.

> The country of 3 million people signed a comprehensive partnership agreement with the EU in 2017. Last year, it adopted a law formally declaring its intention to apply for membership of the bloc, taking the country in a very different political direction to neighbouring Georgia.

> Armenia is a member of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union and the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) alliance, although it froze its membership of the latter in 2024.

> Vladimir Putin said in April that Armenia could not be a member of both the EU and CSTO. “It’s simply impossible by definition,” the Russian president told Pashinyan.

> Macron has been the premier champion of closer European-Armenian ties and his attendance at the Yerevan summit is being given a state-visit-level importance. He is also expected to attend a concert in Gyumri, Armenia’s second-largest city. […]

> With the support of Trump, Armenia and Azerbaijan initialled a peace agreement in Washington last August. The Azerbaijani side said it would fully sign up to the peace agreement once Armenia changed its constitution, claiming that it contains territorial claims against Azerbaijan, which Armenian authorities have repeatedly denied.