Visiting Yerevan, the French president affirmed on Tuesday that Europe is a "natural partner" for Armenia. At the memorial to the victims of the Armenian genocide, he also recalled the "singular relationship" which links France and this former Soviet Republic shared between European aspirations and historical links with Russia.

Published on: 05/05/2026 - 10:01 Modified on: 05/05/2026 - 14:16

The French president affirmed, Tuesday, May 5, that Armenia's vocation was "European", seeing in Europe a "natural partner" for this former Soviet Republic as for the entire South Caucasus region.

“I believe very deeply that Armenia’s vocation is a European vocation,” he declared during a forum in Yerevan. “I also believe in this vocation for Georgia, and I believe that the relationship with Azerbaijan must be rethought,” he added, while conceding that Baku had not made this European choice. Georgia is also torn between pro-Russian and pro-European aspirations.

"Europe is the most natural partner of Armenia and the South Caucasus in the moment we live in," he insisted, as Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine entered its fifth year and a fragile truce in the war in the Middle East.

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He also once again pleaded for a “new alliance, a coalition of independents who believe in the international order”, without having to take “shelter from one power or another, whether a geopolitical power or the power of easy money”.

“Even those who we thought were our allies end up saying that they prefer the law of the strongest to international law,” he noted, in a clear allusion to the United States of Donald Trump.

Tribute to the victims of the genocide

In the morning, Emmanuel Macron paid his respects in Yerevan at the memorial to the Armenians victims of the massacres of 1915. He advanced, accompanied by his counterpart Vahagn Khachaturian, on the immense esplanade facing Mount Ararat, on the heights of the Armenian capital, from where rises a large granite spire symbolizing the Armenian nation.

The French head of state placed a white carnation in front of the eternal flame in memory of the massacre of one and a half million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, recognized as a genocide by France. “Memory and tomb facing the imprescriptible. So that each name resonates and so that oblivion recedes,” he wrote in the memorial’s guestbook.

France, where the largest Armenian diaspora lives after those in Russia and the United States, with 400,000 people, has a long history of friendship and solidarity with this small, very Francophile country of three million inhabitants.

The French president was also greeted by numerous expressions of sympathy, from the highest leaders of the State to onlookers who applauded him in the streets of Yerevan with cries of "Long live Armenia! Long live France!"

On the first day of the visit on Monday, Emmanuel Macron recalled this “singular relationship”, the reception in Marseille of refugees fleeing massacres during the First World War, the mobilization of France during the 1988 earthquake in Armenia, the influence of singer Charles Aznavour in both countries.

French song was also in the spotlight at the state dinner: Emmanuel Macron sang “Bohème” by Charles Aznavour with Prime Minister Nikol Pachinian on the drums. His counterpart performed “Feuilles Mortes” by Yves Montand.

“Russia not there”

France has also always supported Armenia in its deadly fight against Azerbaijan after the fall of the USSR in 1991. "Many in Europe looked at us as strange beasts" while others preferred to cultivate their energy and commercial relations with Baku, said the French president.

At the height of the war around the separatist enclave of Karabakh in 2023, Russia, which still has 4,000 soldiers in Armenia, "was not there, any more than it is there for Venezuela when it has problems (...) or the Malian regime when it is shaken by terrorists", he said.

The president also welcomed the choice of Armenia and its Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinian, to “turn towards Europe”, despite barely veiled warnings from Russia.

An aspiration enshrined by the holding of the summit of the European Political Community on Monday, with around forty leaders from across Europe, and the first EU-Armenia summit on Tuesday in Yerevan.

“The choice you have made of full independence, peace, stability in this region, the choice of Europe and prosperity are those that we support (...). We want to be part of this adventure,” launched Mr. Macron during the dinner in his honor at the presidential palace.

The rapprochement with the EU, however, remains hampered by the strong ties uniting Yerevan and Moscow, both members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a military alliance of which Armenia is still a part despite the freezing of its participation in 2024.

Signing of a strategic partnership

Armenia, landlocked between Azerbaijan, Iran, Georgia and Turkey, with which the border is still closed, is banking on peace to develop its land, energy and commercial connections and emerge from its isolation.

In this context, Emmanuel Macron and Nikol Pashinian will sign a strategic partnership at midday devoting “unprecedented defense efforts” and opening “new economic pages” between the two countries, outlined the head of state.

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Defense cooperation already includes an air component with the order of three French radars and the training by France of Armenian soldiers. Armenia has also placed an order for 36 Caesar cannons in 2024.

Contracts will also be signed in the field of transport, indicated the Elysée, citing "potential prospects for Airbus" as well as "the commitment of the French State" to the construction of a tunnel on the Armenian north-south road axis.

With AFP

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