Armenia hosted its first bilateral summit with the European Union in Yerevan on Tuesday, a landmark diplomatic moment that put the country’s rulers on display as they continue loosening ties with longtime ally Russia and leaning toward another bloc of power. The EU-Armenia summit followed the eighth gathering of the European Political Community, which brought dozens of European leaders to the Armenian capital and turned Yerevan into a stage for European security talk, supply-chain talk, and the usual language of strategic influence.
Who Holds the Levers
The meetings underscored how Armenia is seeking to turn westward and shed Russia’s influence after relations with Moscow grew increasingly strained since 2023. That strain deepened after neighboring Azerbaijan fully reclaimed the Karabakh region and ended the decades-long rule by ethnic Armenian separatists. Armenian authorities accused Russian peacekeepers deployed to the region of failing to stop Azerbaijan’s onslaught. Moscow, tied up with its war in Ukraine, rejected the accusations and said its troops did not have a mandate to intervene.
Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Center in Yerevan, called the war “a belated demonstration that Russia is dangerously unreliable as a partner,” in remarks to The Associated Press. The line captures the basic arrangement of empire and dependency that small states are forced to navigate: one patron fails, another steps in, and ordinary people are left living with the consequences.
Since then, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government has pursued closer ties with the West, a move welcomed by the EU. In remarks to the EPC conference on Monday, EU Council President Antonio Costa thanked Pashinyan for “the courageous political decisions he has taken to bring Armenia closer to the European Union.” Costa said, “The direction of travel is unmistakable,” and stressed that it was “vital to strengthen Armenian democracy and fight external interference and misinformation.” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU Commission, said Armenia played an important role for European supply chains, “specifically on the connectivity to the South Caucasus and Central Asia.”
What the Institutions Deliver
Armenia joined the International Criminal Court in 2023, a move Moscow condemned as an “unfriendly step.” The court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine. Armenia froze its participation in the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization in 2024. The following year, the Armenian parliament passed a law formally declaring the country’s intention to seek EU membership.
Giragosian said it is the EU, rather than the United States, that has stepped into the vacuum left by Russia. “EU engagement is much more prudent and much more productive than the U.S. becoming involved, simply because European engagement is less provocative to Russia over the longer term,” he added. The language is polished, but the structure is familiar: great powers managing risk, while smaller populations are expected to absorb the fallout.
Armenia remains a member of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union, a single market allowing the free movement of goods, capital and labor. The organization also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and Putin has made the trade-offs plain. Speaking at talks with Pashinyan in Moscow earlier this year, Putin warned that Armenia could not simultaneously belong to both the EEU and the EU, noting that Yerevan currently receives Russian natural gas at prices far below European market rates. Pashinyan acknowledged the incompatibility but said Armenia could, for now, combine EEU membership with deepening EU cooperation.
Giragosian described Tuesday’s summit as “a focus on deepening the preexisting relationship” rather than a step toward candidacy, referencing the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement that has governed EU-Armenia ties since coming fully into force in 2021. “The symbolic significance is much greater as a message to Russia,” he said.
Who Pays, Who Benefits
Some concrete results are expected, Giragosian said. Financing for domestic reform and military assistance through the European Peace Facility, a fund created primarily to support Ukraine, is among the anticipated announcements. An EU monitoring mission has been deployed along Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan for several years, and a new mission targeting hybrid threats has recently been approved.
Pashinyan, who has been in office since 2018 and faces parliamentary elections in June, stands to benefit politically from the international profile the European meetings confer. Giragosian said Pashinyan’s government is likely to be returned largely by default, with the opposition unable to offer a credible alternative program. The electoral theater keeps moving, but the menu remains tightly controlled.
Giragosian also warned against framing Armenia’s foreign policy as simply a pivot from Russia to the West. “Armenia is also pivoting beyond the black and white zero-sum game paradigm,” he said, pointing to significant diplomatic investment in Asia, including with Japan, South Korea and China. “This is not about replacing Russia with the West. This is much more innovative, much more sophisticated.”
The summit came at a moment of heightened tension between Azerbaijan and the EU. Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the EU ambassador last week to protest a European Parliament resolution demanding the release of Armenian prisoners of war and criticizing the treatment of Armenians in Karabakh. Lawmakers in Azerbaijan subsequently voted to suspend all cooperation with the European Parliament.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, who addressed the EPC conference via video link, accused the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly for the Council of Europe (PACE) of “double standards” for placing sanctions on Azerbaijan’s PACE delegation.
There were also protests outside the EPC summit venue, which was surrounded by tight security. Demonstrators held photos of Armenian prisoners being held in Azerbaijan. Opposition leader Aram Sargsyan, head of the Democratic Party of Armenia, told the Armenian Press Agency that the European officials were voicing support for Pashinyan ahead of the election and have “forgotten about the Armenians in prison in Azerbaijan.”
Morton reported from London. Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, and Avet Demourian in Yerevan, Armenia, contributed.