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TRACECA is a child of the EU’s ambition to be a global player. The EU should not forget, nor ignore, nor sideline, TRACECA’s work. Instead it should recognise that TRACECA has shown it is resilient and adaptable. The next phase of EU-IGC TRACECA co-operation must therefore be more strategic, and more ambitious.

EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, has just returned from Indonesia where he met the country's leaders, and also had talks with ASEAN – the regional grouping of South East Asian countries. Writing on his blog, Borrell explains why the Indo-Pacific Region is so important for Europe. He argues that, "If we want to be a geopolitical actor, we also have to be perceived as a political and security actor in the region, not just as a development cooperation, trading or investment partner."

In an announcement on Friday (5 June), the Council of the European Union, which represents the 27 member states, said that it has decided to strengthen the existing restrictive measures in view of the situation in Belarus by introducing a ban on the overflight of EU airspace and on access to EU airports by Belarusian carriers of all kinds.

The European Union and the United Kingdom have reached an agreement on how much fish they may catch in 2021 of the species controlled by both parties.

Charles Michel stressed the importance for the European Union of stability and prosperity of the South Caucasus and of deepening relations with the two partner countries, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

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".