{"id":643413,"date":"2026-05-02T17:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T17:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/643413\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T17:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T17:12:10","slug":"carneys-trip-to-armenia-happening-as-ottawas-foreign-policy-aims-shift-expert-says-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/643413\/","title":{"rendered":"Carney\u2019s trip to Armenia happening as Ottawa\u2019s foreign policy aims shift, expert says – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> is headed to Armenia on Saturday for a visit his office says is framed around Ukraine\u2019s defence and drumming up more trade and investment in Europe.<\/p>\n

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Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Ratelle, an international studies professor at the University of Ottawa who specializes in the Caucasus region, said it\u2019s disappointing that the visit doesn\u2019t seem to be aimed at continuing Canada\u2019s years of advocacy for democracy and peace in Armenia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are witnessing a complete change of our foreign policy and what are our general interests,\u201d Ratelle told The Canadian Press.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s looking for our own interests and our own opportunities, and not playing that leading role in norms, and what used to define Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prime minister will be in the Armenian capital Yerevan from Saturday until Monday for the European Political Community summit touching on strategic co-operation in politics, security and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

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Canada is the first non-European country to attend these meetings, which have taken place twice a year since they began after Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The meetings include EU countries and others, such as Iceland, Turkey and Ukraine itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really mainly an attempt to create a forum to talk to each other,\u201d said Achim Hurrelmann, co-director of the Centre for European Studies at Carleton University. He said Carney seems to be attending to advance defence procurement deals with Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy guess is that he is primarily interested in the opportunity to meet EU leaders, and leaders from especially Ukraine and the U.K. all at once, to try to move toward implementing some of the common initiatives that have been launched with the European Union.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hurrelmann said it\u2019s possible the trip could help Carney identify projects his government could pursue after repeated high-level statements about defence co-operation.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat has actually proven to be more difficult is to create joint projects (and) find the private investment that is necessary for that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The prime minister\u2019s news release announcing the trip did not touch on the recent history of the Caucasus region. The previous Trudeau government weighed in multiple times on ethnic conflict in the region and often expressed support for the Armenian diaspora in Canada.<\/p>\n

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought for control of the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Canada and other countries recognize the region as part of Azerbaijan, despite its population being largely ethnic Armenians.<\/p>\n

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The conflict has flared up at various points, particularly when Russian peacekeepers thinned out after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n

Azerbaijan restricted access to the region and eventually launched a military campaign against separatist groups that caused more than 100,000 people to evacuate in 2023, just as Canada opened an embassy in Yerevan.<\/p>\n

Canada has spoken out against Azerbaijan\u2019s actions, joined an EU security mission and at one point halted military exports to Turkey over concerns that country was sending Canadian components to its ally Azerbaijan to be used in Nagorno-Karabakh.<\/p>\n

Ottawa also sought to support what it called \u201cfragile\u201d democracies in former Soviet states such as Armenia through, among other things, efforts to counter misinformation.<\/p>\n

Ratelle said that work has largely stopped since Carney took office and there has not been much visible work by the embassy in Yerevan on advancing democracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe virtue-signalled with regard to ethnic cleansing, with regard to the importance of democratization, but we didn\u2019t really walk the walk after that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn a sea of authoritarianism and backsliding countries, Armenia is really the one that has more hope of developing a better agenda for democratization and human rights. At the same time, Canada was never really involved a lot in trade or economic relations with Armenia.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That transition away from authoritarianism is far from complete. Freedom House noted in its 2025 report that in Armenia, \u201cthe courts face systemic political influence, and judicial institutions are undermined by corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ratelle said the region is taking on increasing geopolitical importance, with Armenia and Azerbaijan both share borders with Iran. Both are welcoming American investors as part of a U.S. initiative to broker peace between the two countries through shared economic and infrastructure links that would bolster trade between Asia and Europe.<\/p>\n

Those efforts could yield \u201ctremendous opportunities,\u201d Ratelle said, but only if the geopolitical situation remains relatively stable for 10 to 15 years. Armenia and Azerbaijan still have disputes over borders, prisoners of war and Azerbaijan\u2019s recent destruction of Armenian cultural heritage sites.<\/p>\n

Ratelle added that Armenia feels it lacks international support in the ongoing \u201cslippery peace process\u201d with Azerbaijan, a country that Turkey supports heavily.<\/p>\n

The disappointment was compounded last June, Ratelle said, when Carney hosted the G7 summit and did not list Caucasus issues among Canada\u2019s geopolitical priorities for discussion with U.S. President Donald Trump and other leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt speaks, I think, volumes of the current administration that the priority is more about economic trade \u2026 than upholding international law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said Armenia likely invited Canada in an effort to forge stronger relations with middle powers.<\/p>\n

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Carney said Wednesday he had never been to Armenia before. The last prime minister to visit was Justin Trudeau at the Francophonie summit in 2018.<\/p>\n

This weekend\u2019s visit comes as Canada works to build trade ties with countries such as Turkey, where Carney is expected to visit for the NATO summit in July.<\/p>\n

Ahead of that trip, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and others took part in events marking the Armenian genocide, a term rejected by the Turkish government.<\/p>\n

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