YEREVAN: European leaders talked up independence on defence and closer ties with Canada Monday, as they gathered in Armenia for a summit clouded by US threats to cut military support.
US President Donald Trump loomed large over the meeting of the European Political Community (EPC) in Yerevan, which was for the first time attended by a non-European leader: Canada’s Mark Carney.
“We don’t think that we’re destined to submit to a more transactional insular and brutal world and gatherings such as these point to a better way forward,” the Canadian prime minister told fellow leaders.
Trump’s go-it-alone policies on trade and defence have pushed Canada and Europe closer together, with both now confronting the economic fallout from the US-Israeli war on Iran which has further strained transatlantic ties.
The Armenia gathering comes days after Washington announced it would pull 5,000 US troops from Germany, whose leader, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, has sparred with Trump over the Middle East conflict.
“We have to step up our military capabilities to be able to defend and protect ourselves,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Yerevan. The bloc needed “more independence” in security matters, she added.
Like Europe, Canada’s economy has been hurt by Trump’s tariffs — but Carney has remained defiant, emerging as something of a figurehead for countries looking to stand up to the Republican president.
He has urged middle powers to join forces in the face of a new reality defined by great power competition and a “fading” rules based order.
Moving to diversify away from its southern neighbour, Ottawa has become the first non-European country to join the EU’s defence financing scheme, while seeking to increase cooperation on trade.
“We’re the most European of non-European countries, so there’s many ways that we can work together,” Carney told reporters in Yerevan.
“Great to count on friends like Canada!” European Council President Antonio Costa wrote on social media.
A biannual political forum, the EPC was established on the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron in 2022 in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
It was “initially perceived as an anti-Putin club” but Canada’s participation has given it a new “anti-Trump slant”, said Sebastien Maillard, a special adviser at the Jacques Delors Institute, a think tank.
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