Yerevan, Armenia - European leaders and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney are gathering on Monday in Armenia for security talks focusing on how to navigate an increasingly volatile geopolitical environment.

President Donald Trump is looming large over the meeting of the European Political Community (EPC) in Yerevan, a crossroads between both Russia and the Middle East.

"Leaders from across the continent, with Canada as a guest, will discuss how to cooperate to strengthen security and collective resilience," European Council President Antonio Costa wrote on social media as he arrived in the Armenian capital on Sunday.

The Iran war, which has rattled the global economy by sending energy prices soaring, has deepened a rift in transatlantic ties, deeply damaging the relationship between the US and the European Union.

North Korea North Korea says US cybercrime accusations are "absurd slander"

A spat between Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who had criticized the US and Israel's war against Iran, triggered Washington to announce plans to withdraw 5,000 US troops from Germany.

The decision has added to doubts surrounding the US' commitment to defend its European allies, even as Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine grinds into its fifth year.

The summit "in a nutshell, will be an opportunity to emphasize that Europe's security is a 360- degree challenge," said a senior EU official.

"Canada has a way of looking at the world and looking at ways to solve the challenges we have currently that Europe shares to a great extent," said the EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO chief Mark Rutte will be present in Yerevan, while Merz will be represented by France's Emmanuel Macron.

They will be joined by Canada's Carney, the first-ever non-European leader to participate in EPC talks, in a sign of the ever-closer ties between Ottawa and Europe ushered in by Trump.

The EPC is a biannual political forum established by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2022 in response to the invasion of Ukraine. It brings together the members of the European Union and 21 other countries.

Canada Carney says Canada and Europe are not "destined to submit" to Trump's "brutal" new world order

Canada's economy has been hurt by Trump's tariffs, but Carney has remained defiant and outspoken against the Republican president.

In a stirring speech earlier this year, he urged middle powers to join forces in the face of a new global reality defined by great power competition and a "fading" rules-based order.

Moving to diversify away from its southern neighbor, Ottawa is the first non-EPC nation to join the EU's defense financing scheme, and has sought to increase cooperation on trade.

"Bound by shared values, Canada is working with our European partners to create more certainty, security, and prosperity for all our peoples," Carney wrote on X.