Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived in Ireland on Wednesday to discuss security, energy and the future of Ukraine with European leaders, his first trip to the continent since it was confirmed last month that Canada is working toward becoming the first “associate member” of the European Union.

Mr. Carney will attend the European Political Community meeting on Thursday, which is being hosted in Dublin by the Irish government. It will include about 50 leaders and representatives, mainly from Europe. The recurring forum was set up in 2022 after Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine to provide a venue for leaders from across the continent to talk strategy.

The Dublin summit is unfolding immediately after Ukraine peace talks in Abu Dhabi, the first in nine months, where negotiators for Moscow and Kyiv reported some progress, including a large-scale prisoner exchange. But U.S. mediators said there was a lack of trust between the warring sides, and that differences remained on major issues, including territory.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in Dublin, where he will brief leaders on the talks. U.S. envoy Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, and fellow U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff plan to join Mr. Zelensky in Dublin after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

European governments are trying to build a consensus on Ukraine, because their financial resources and security support for Kyiv will be crucial for a lasting settlement to Russia’s war on the country.

The summit is being co-hosted by Irish Taoiseach Michael Martin and European Council President Antonio Costa.

One roundtable discussion is titled Securing and Defending a Democratic Europe.

The EPC summit will end with a dinner hosted by the Irish Taoiseach. The summit is being protected by what Irish officials have called the largest security operation in the country’s history, and was preceded by a week of hoax bomb threats and cyberattacks. The Irish government said this appeared to be a co-ordinated campaign. Some European officials suspect that Russia may be behind these and other disruptions on the continent, an allegation Russia has denied.

The Prime Minister’s Office has said Canada will be the only non-European country to address the forum, which it framed in a recent press statement as an evolution of efforts “toward Canada becoming the EU’s first associate member.” It said Ottawa and Brussels are “creating more choice and lowering costs for families, opening new export markets for business and expanding opportunities for young people to live, work and study on both sides of the Atlantic.”

The term “associate member,” first proposed publicly in September, has no legal status in the EU’s founding treaties. But European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in October at an EU-Canada summit in Montreal that Canada’s new relationship with Brussels will be worked out in the months ahead.

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The associate member label has been controversial among EU member nations, some of which have objected to conferring the title on a country that has no intention of pursuing full membership in the bloc.

A joint statement at the end of the Montreal summit did not use the term. But Mr. Carney said at the conclusion of that summit that Canada is pursuing associate membership.

At the Dublin summit, French President Emmanuel Macron will propose a set of common principles on European security, the Élysée said. This would cover traditional strategic and industrial threats, as well as hybrid attacks, disinformation and food security. They would complement rather than replace NATO and existing treaties, the palace said.

Informal meetings between European leaders will continue Friday – focusing on artificial intelligence – but Mr. Carney is leaving Dublin on Thursday night as part of a whirlwind trip that includes three summits in Asia. He’s heading to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Manila, the Francophonie summit in Phnom Penh and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China.

With reports from Reuters and The Associated Press