On May 4–5, Yerevan is hosting the eighth summit of the European Political Community and the first summit in the Armenia–EU format. Dozens of European leaders have converged on the Armenian capital, making this one of the most significant diplomatic events of the year.
Among the participants are European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and Moldovan President Maia Sandu have also made the journey.
On Sunday afternoon, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also arrived in Yerevan. He has already held a series of talks with the leaders of Norway, Finland, the United Kingdom, and the Czech Republic. The Ukrainian president is using the summit to discuss continued military aid to Kyiv and the prospects for ending the war with Russia.
The choice of venue is particularly symbolic: Armenia was long considered one of Russia’s closest allies in the post-Soviet space. The country remains a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and a Russian military base is stationed in the Armenian city of Gyumri. Nevertheless, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has in recent years been steadily steering his country toward closer ties with the European Union.
