European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will visit both Azerbaijan and Armenia next week to further develop the EU’s strategic engagement with the two former rivals in the South Caucasus, sources in Yerevan and Baku with knowledge of the matter confirmed to Euronews.
The head of the EU executive is set to visit Baku on 1 July, where she will hold talks with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on the country's expanding energy supplies to Europe as the main pillar of EU-Azerbaijan relations, as well as cooperation on key regional infrastructure projects that are now crucial for the EU economies.
This will be von der Leyen’s first visit to Baku since 2022, when the EU and Azerbaijan signed their strategic energy partnership as Europe moved away from Russian energy and needed urgent alternative gas supplies.
It is also the first visit since Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to make peace after decades of war over Karabakh, in a region formerly in Moscow's orbit.
The visit continues the strategic EU political dialogue with the region, following European Council President Antonio Costa’s talks with Aliyev in Baku back in March, when Costa said that Brussels and Baku were now working on a new framework for closer cooperation on defence, security, and digital developments intended to widen relations beyond the existing energy and key infrastructure links.
