Ursula von der Leyen will travel to Baku on 1 July and then to Yerevan to deepen EU engagement with Azerbaijan and Armenia after the two sides signed a peace agreement following decades of war over Karabakh. The agenda blends energy security, major transport p
When the European Commission President’s itinerary becomes more than diplomacy—when it begins to map routes. pipelines. and border days—people in the South Caucasus feel the weight of it. Next week. Ursula von der Leyen is set to visit both Azerbaijan and Armenia as the EU tries to build a long-term political and economic engagement with two former rivals now working inside a peace framework.
The trip begins in Baku on 1 July, where von der Leyen will hold talks with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev. Energy will be the main pillar of the EU-Azerbaijan relationship on the agenda. including Azerbaijan’s expanding energy supplies to Europe. Cooperation is also expected to focus on key regional infrastructure projects that have become increasingly crucial for EU economies.
For von der Leyen, it will be her first visit to Baku since 2022, when the EU and Azerbaijan signed their strategic energy partnership. That move came as Europe moved away from Russian energy and needed urgent alternative gas supplies.
Just as important is what has changed politically in the region. The visit also follows the first time Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to make peace after decades of war over Karabakh, a conflict that once kept the region largely within Moscow’s orbit.
The EU leadership has already been laying groundwork for a broader engagement. Back in March. European Council President Antonio Costa met Ilham Aliyev in Baku and said Brussels and Baku were working on a new framework for closer cooperation on defence. security. and digital developments—an attempt to widen relations beyond energy and key infrastructure links.
Costa said in March that “energy security is a cornerstone of the EU’s cooperation with Azerbaijan,” and he added that this partnership reflected a wider joint vision. He described the talks as sending “a strong signal of our joint vision for the future.”
Energy’s reach is already visible in Europe’s supply chain. A total of 16 European countries currently receive Azerbaijani gas. with 10 EU member states among the recipients. and Italy is the top EU importer of Azerbaijani energy. That role was underlined by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s visit to Baku in May.
But the message in Baku isn’t only about gas flows. Connectivity has become the next pressure point—and the EU wants Azerbaijan to sit closer to its future trade route.
The Middle Corridor. which links Europe and Asia through Turkey and the South Caucasus. is being treated as Europe’s new trade priority. The push comes as Iran-generated disruptions have affected other transit options. European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos is expected to join von der Leyen on both visits. and in the run-up she launched the EU’s new Connectivity Agenda Platform.
The platform is designed to let the EU participate in Middle Corridor projects. using investments from governments. financial institutions. and private investors. Up to now. EU funding has reached more than €80 million. with a goal of over €2 billion for transport. energy. and digital infrastructure investments.
In a video posted on X, Kos laid out the practical argument. She said it was critical for Europe to make its trade routes and energy more secure. avoid now-unreliable traditional routes. and that Europe needed to do its part. She pointed to how “Almost all planes started passing through the Caucasus. ” arguing that through the Middle Corridor. the region could secure trade. energy. and digital links.
Kos also gave a concrete target: trade along the route is now four times higher than in 2022 due to bottlenecks and hurdles. and shipping cargo to Europe can still take up to 45 days to reach Romania. Her goal, she said, is to cut that to 15 days by improving roads, railways, ports, and reducing delays at borders.
She connected the logistics plan to household costs and regional stability. saying the changes would help lower costs for European businesses and make goods cheaper for people in the EU. and that it would help the EU economy grow. She also tied the corridor to regional dynamics after decades of conflict. saying it would support improving relations between countries in the region and strengthen the economies of neighbours to the east.
Kos used a historic comparison in her message. linking it to how “coal and steel did for us in Europe after World War II.” She closed with a clear priority for the European Commission: securing trade. energy. and digital links via routes Europe can trust—setting the stage for von der Leyen’s visit to Baku.
The EU’s connectivity push has been developing alongside political conversations. In March. Aliyev told Costa that amid disruptions to global transit systems caused by the war in Iran. the South Caucasus’ economic and transit potential was growing. including new opportunities to develop the Middle Corridor connecting Asia and Europe.
And if the Middle Corridor is about movement. expanding Azerbaijan’s energy capacity is about building the next link in Europe’s supply chain. During her visit to Baku in May. Meloni said she wanted Azerbaijan to strengthen its role as an energy hub between Europe and Asia. with Italy serving as “the privileged gateway to the European market.” Expanding capacity would require enlarging the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline. the final leg of the Southern Gas Corridor that carries Azerbaijani gas across Turkey. Greece. and Albania into southern Italy.
In Yerevan, the tone is different—but the stakes are tightly connected. The new EU initiatives come after Azerbaijan and Armenia signed their historic peace agreement following almost four decades of a tragic conflict. The Commission President’s decision to visit both countries is shaped by symbolism as much as substance: the EU is choosing to engage within a peace framework rather than returning to confrontation.
Von der Leyen will travel to Yerevan for talks with Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The EU has just rolled out a support package for Armenia, and the visit is intended to further develop strategic EU-Armenia relations following Pashinyan’s decisive pro-West mandate in recent elections.
In the final days before those elections, the European Commission endorsed Pashinyan just days before the crucial elections on 7 June. The support package was announced as a response to counter the Russian onslaught of sanctions after Yerevan’s cautious pro-Western, pro-EU turn.
Pashinyan’s approach in the run-up to the vote included careful wording about Europe’s future with Armenia. He stated that Armenia’s EU membership bid was “theoretical” at this time.
The EU said the support package included financial assistance and practical measures aimed at Armenian agri-food trade after Moscow unleashed an economic onslaught. That included restricting imports of various Armenian fruits. vegetables. flowers. and fish products. as well as wine. brandy. and mineral water. The pressure also came with threats to cut critical Russian oil and gas supplies to Armenia.
More than that, von der Leyen’s visit follows another EU announcement made last Friday: the European Commission said it “disbursed €34 million to Armenia to help mitigate the impact of Russia’s trade restrictions on the country’s private sector.”
The European Commission said in a statement that “The EU is delivering swiftly on its commitments to support Armenia and its people.” It added that additional support would be provided to sectors affected by the trade restrictions. including agri-food products and flower production and other export-oriented industries. The Commission said these efforts would come through trade initiatives, business matchmaking events, and targeted market access initiatives.
The EU-Armenia Task Force on Economic Resilience continues to meet regularly to steer and monitor the implementation of these measures, the Commission said.
Kos had described the broader push in direct terms. saying the EU stands firmly with Armenia. a sovereign. democratic. and independent country. She said the EU package would help address immediate economic challenges while opening new opportunities for Armenian businesses to trade with regional and European markets. “This is European solidarity in action,” she emphasised.
By the time von der Leyen’s plane lands in Baku and later in Yerevan. Europe’s strategy will be visible in the details: energy supplies meant to replace reliance on Russian gas. pipelines tied to capacity. transport corridors built to shorten days. and economic support designed to keep Armenian industries standing as trade restrictions bite. The common thread is the same—using peace. connectivity. and economic resilience to pull the region closer to the EU’s future. one route and one agreement at a time.
Ursula von der Leyen Azerbaijan Armenia Baku Yerevan EU strategic engagement energy security Middle Corridor Trans-Adriatic Pipeline Southern Gas Corridor Marta Kos Connectivity Agenda Platform Nikol Pashinyan Ilham Aliyev Karabakh peace agreement €34 million disbursed to Armenia