Canada is to become the first non-European country to attend a meeting of the European Political Community when the prime minister, Mark Carney, joins Monday’s summit of the 48-plus nation grouping in Yerevan, Armenia.

Carney has said he is determined to build a new network of trade and diplomatic alliances after the loss of US markets under Donald Trump. His presence will also represent a show of western support for Armenia in its efforts to distance itself from Russia at a time when the US’s approach to Moscow’s opponents, such as Ukraine, is at best ambiguous. Canadian diplomats have rejected suggestions Ottawa might seek EU membership.

Trump’s plan to pull more than 5,000 troops out of Germany over the next year and the economic impact on western economies of a prolonged US-Iran conflict will be major subjects of discussion in Yerevan. Armenia shares a border with Iran, but unlike neighbouring Azerbaijan has not alleged Iranian missiles have landed in its territory.

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 backers. Its prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, has pursued a policy of diversification that in practice is slowly drawing Armenia 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. He faces three opposition parties more sympathetic to Russia.

Thomas de Waal, a senior fellow with Carnegie Europe specialising in the Caucasus region, said: “European leaders will have to walk a fine line in Yerevan. As they hold what looks like a pre-election rally for Pashinyan, they must also have a bigger conversation about building a more robust and less polarised Armenia.

“The country itself deserves full European attention. It is on the verge of a painful but transformative peace agreement with Baku that will lead to the reopening of its two long borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey, which have been closed since the 1990s. The country also has a historic opportunity to loosen its overdependence on Moscow as the war in Ukraine continues to distract and drain 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 European Union in 2017. Last year, it adopted a law formally declaring its intention to apply for EU membership, 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 warned Armenia in April that it 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 is being given a state-visit-level importance. He is also expected to attend a concert in Gyumri, Armenia’s second-largest city

The EPC, which was set up in 2022, brings together full members of the EU and the large constellation of nations outside the Brussels bloc, including the UK, Turkey, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Serbia and other Baltic nations.

The group has no formal secretariat and often avoids lengthy communiques in favour of bilateral leader-to-leader discussion.

The EPC was met with scepticism at its inception, with some fearing it was a sop for countries that had been waiting for years to have their applications for EU membership to be progressed. But the willingness of European leaders to continue to attend the summits suggests the gatherings serve a purpose.

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.