Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will not attend the 8th summit of the European Political Community (EPC) scheduled to open in Yerevan on May 4, 2026.

This meeting will convene leaders from across Europe to discuss security, energy, and stability and is part of the recurring, twice-yearly gatherings of 47 participating countries designed to promote dialogue between EU and non-EU nations.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, according to the APA news agency, today announced that Aliyev’s very tight schedule and calendar do not include such a visit in May.

No representation at any level is envisaged for the European Political Community Summit to be held in Armenia, Bayramov is cited as saying.  

Armenia extended invitations to the leaders of Turkey and Azerbaijan last October. Ankara has yet to announce whether Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will attend the summit in Yerevan.

The EPC’s first summit took place in Prague in October 2022 at the initiation of French President Emmanuel Macron who will travel to Yerevan to attend the May meeting.

Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan, at the closing session of the EPC summit in Copenhagen in October 2025, said that by hosting the summit Armenia will reinforce its integration into the “European family” and provide an opportunity to highlight the country’s progress in democratic reforms.

Since its inception in 2022, the EPC has deliberately excluded Russia and Belarus in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Photo: VCG