Carney’s trip to Armenia happening as Ottawa’s foreign policy aims shift, expert says - BERITAJA

Prime Minister Mark Carney is headed to Armenia connected Saturday for a sojourn his agency says is framed about Ukraine’s defence and drumming up much waste and acquisition and finance successful Europe.

Jean-François Ratelle, an world studies professor astatine the University of Ottawa who specializes successful the Caucasus region, said it’s disappointing that the sojourn doesn’t look to beryllium aimed astatine continuing Canada’s years of defense for populist and bid successful Armenia.

“We are witnessing a complete alteration of our overseas argumentation and what are our wide interests,” Ratelle told BERITAJA.

“It’s looking for our ain interests and our ain opportunities, and not playing that starring domiciled successful norms, and what utilized to specify Canada.”

The premier curate will beryllium successful the Armenian superior Yerevan from Saturday until Monday for the European Political Community acme rubbing connected strategical co-operation successful politics, information and infrastructure.

Canada is the first non-European state to be these meetings, which person taken spot doubly a twelvemonth since they began aft Russia’s full-scale penetration of Ukraine successful 2022. The meetings see EU countries and others, specified arsenic Iceland, Turkey and Ukraine itself.

“It’s really chiefly an effort to create a forum to talk to each other,” said Achim Hurrelmann, co-director of the Centre for European Studies astatine Carleton University. He said Carney seems to beryllium attending to beforehand defence procurement deals pinch Europe.

“My conjecture is that he is chiefly willing successful the opportunity to meet EU leaders, and leaders from particularly Ukraine and the U.K. each astatine once, to effort to move toward implementing immoderate of the communal initiatives that person been launched pinch the European Union.”

Hurrelmann said it’s imaginable the travel could thief Carney place projects his authorities could prosecute aft repeated high-level statements about defence co-operation.

“What has really proven to beryllium much difficult is to create associated projects (and) find the backstage finance that is basal for that,” he said.

The premier minister’s news merchandise announcing the travel did not touch connected the caller history of the Caucasus region. The erstwhile Trudeau authorities weighed successful aggregate times connected taste conflict successful the region and often expressed support for the Armenian diaspora successful Canada.

Since the illness of the Soviet Union, Armenia and Azerbaijan person fought for power of the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Canada and different countries admit the region arsenic portion of Azerbaijan, contempt its organization being mostly taste Armenians.

The conflict has flared up astatine various points, peculiarly erstwhile Russian peacekeepers thinned retired aft Moscow launched its full-scale penetration of Ukraine successful 2022.

Azerbaijan restricted entree to the region and yet launched a subject run against separatist groups that caused much than 100,000 group to evacuate successful 2023, conscionable arsenic Canada opened an embassy successful Yerevan.

Canada has spoken retired against Azerbaijan’s actions, joined an EU information ngo and astatine 1 constituent halted subject exports to Turkey complete concerns that state was sending Canadian components to its state Azerbaijan to beryllium utilized successful Nagorno-Karabakh.

Ottawa besides sought to support what it called “fragile” democracies successful erstwhile Soviet states specified arsenic Armenia through, among different things, efforts to antagonistic misinformation.

Ratelle said that activity has mostly stopped since Carney took agency and location has not been overmuch visible activity by the embassy successful Yerevan connected advancing democracy.

“We virtue-signalled pinch respect to taste cleansing, pinch respect to the value of democratization, but we didn’t really locomotion the locomotion aft that,” he said.

“In a oversea of authoritarianism and backsliding countries, Armenia is really the 1 that has much dream of processing a amended schedule for democratization and quality rights. At the aforesaid time, Canada was ne'er really progressive a batch successful waste and acquisition aliases economical relations pinch Armenia.”

That modulation distant from authoritarianism is acold from complete. Freedom House noted successful its 2025 study that successful Armenia, “the courts look systemic governmental influence, and judicial institutions are undermined by corruption.”

Ratelle said the region is taking connected expanding geopolitical importance, pinch Armenia and Azerbaijan some stock borders pinch Iran. Both are welcoming American investors arsenic portion of a U.S. inaugural to agent bid betwixt the 2 countries done shared economical and infrastructure links that would bolster waste and acquisition betwixt Asia and Europe.

Those efforts could output “tremendous opportunities,” Ratelle said, but only if the geopolitical business remains comparatively unchangeable for 10 to 15 years. Armenia and Azerbaijan still person disputes complete borders, prisoners of warfare and Azerbaijan’s caller demolition of Armenian taste practice sites.

Ratelle added that Armenia feels it lacks world support successful the ongoing “slippery bid process” pinch Azerbaijan, a state that Turkey supports heavily.

The disappointment was compounded past June, Ratelle said, erstwhile Carney hosted the G7 acme and did not database Caucasus issues among Canada’s geopolitical priorities for chat pinch U.S. President Donald Trump and different leaders.

“It speaks, I think, volumes of the existent management that the privilege is much about economical waste and acquisition … than upholding world law,” he said.

He said Armenia apt invited Canada successful an effort to forge stronger relations pinch mediate powers.

Carney said Wednesday he had ne'er been to Armenia before. The past premier curate to sojourn was Justin Trudeau astatine the Francophonie acme successful 2018.

This weekend’s sojourn comes arsenic Canada useful to build waste and acquisition ties pinch countries specified arsenic Turkey, wherever Carney is expected to sojourn for the NATO acme successful July.

Ahead of that trip, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and others took portion successful events marking the Armenian genocide, a word rejected by the Turkish government.