Elections

Since the initialling of the peace agreement in Washington in August 2025, Armenia and Azerbaijan have taken important steps towards peace. Meetings on border delimitation were held in Gabala in November 2025 and Aghveran in April 2026 between Armenia’s Mher Grigoryan and Azerbaijan’s Shahin Mustafayev. Civil society engagement has also advanced through the Peace Bridge initiative, launched in November 2025 with the support of both governments, which has facilitated direct and cross-border dialogue between Armenian and Azerbaijani representatives. While this remains a government-run initiative, it is important and praiseworthy. At the European Political Community Summit in Yerevan on 4 May, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and President Ilham Aliyev welcomed the progress made and reiterated their commitment to the peace process.  There has also been progress on TRIPP, one of the core elements of the peace agreement. TRIPP, the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, is a proposed transport and connectivity route through Armenia linking Azerbaijan with Nakhchivan, intended to support regional trade, transit and normalisation while respecting Armenia’s sovereignty. Despite the crisis in the Middle East and Iran’s concerns regarding American support for the project, Armenia and the United States signed the Framework Agreement on Strategic Cooperation Concerning TRIPP in June 2026 to support its implementation. (Read the full briefing by clicking on the image above)

Following the fall of the Romanian government on 5 May, President Nicușor Dan has been required to consult political parties and nominate a new prime minister-designate to form a government. Yet, after more than a month of debate, Romania remains without a clear path towards a stable governing majority. During this political turmoil, a drone entered Romania’s airspace and hit an apartment building in Galati on 29 May. Two people were taken to the hospital after suffering burns from the explosion. 70 other people were evacuated from the building. A week later, on Friday (5 June), another maritime drone exploded in the port of Constanta. This time, thankfully, there were no victims. Both incidents were followed by a wave of misinformation claiming that Romania was on the verge of being drawn into the war in Ukraine. On top of all of this, Diana Sosoaca, Romanian Europarliamentarian and leader of the SOS (S.O.S. Romania) party, went to Putin’s economic forum in St Petersburg last week and stated that “Romanians want peace with Russia. We do not want to support Ukraine…We admire your force and the Russian people”. All these manipulated narratives further fuelled existing political polarisation and public anxiety at a time when the country was already grappling with political instability and heightened security concerns. These events cannot be taken out of context, and to be understood, they need to be properly analysed.