EU plus

Less than three weeks before crucial parliamentary elections in Armenia, France embraced the Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, who was on a short working visit to Paris. At a meeting at the Elysee Palace, France's president, Emmanuel Macron, assured Pashinyan that "France will always be at Armenia's side".

The EU sanctions were introduced in 2011 as a response to the violent repression in the country. Currently, 283 individuals and 70 organisations are on the sanctions list.

But we are going to talk also about the European Union-Africa Partnership, about the Indo-Pacific Strategy and about the conflicts in our Eastern Neighbourhood, which are affecting our security, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told journalists

The united European response to the brazen Belarusian snatching of an opposition figure from a commercial airplane of a European airline flying between two European capitals was swift and strong. Nothing dramatic will happen overnight as a result, but make no mistake about it, this was the opening shot of what is likely to be a long and messy war of attrition against Belarus that may last for years. On Belarus now, the EU's mind is set. The process will start and will be sustained.

The forced diversion by Belarus of a flight between two EU member states on Sunday (23 May) constitutes an act of international piracy at the heart of Europe. Under President Lukashenko, Belarus is now a pirate state, and must be treated like one. This will undoubtedly cause some pain to the Belarusian people who are not to blame for the recklessness of their leader, but this is now inevitable.