I write from Slovenia, where I am on official visit and I will take part in the Bled Strategic Forum: in Bled I will meet, among others, Yukiya Amano, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and Lassina Zerbo, the Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO). I will discuss with them how to best strengthen the global non-proliferation system, which we Europeans strongly support, and we will also talk about the latest tests by Pyongyang.

Last week ended with the latest challenge by North Korea against the international community, a new threat against global peace and security. The international community needs to preserve its unity: all decisions must be taken by the United Nations’ Security Council, to increase the diplomatic and economic pressure, and to avoid dangerous military reactions.

Right after the nuclear test, I talked to the Foreign Ministers of Japan, Taro Kono, and of the Republic of Korea, Kang Kyung-wha, to coordinate our action ahead of the next steps by the European Union: we will discuss these steps in Tallinn on Thursday, at the informal meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers. Here is the press release.

In an increasingly chaotic world, the demand for a strong and reliable European Union has also increased exponentially over the last year. I see it every day in my work, and so do the 140 Heads of the European Union’s Delegations around the world. They all gathered in Brussels last week for our annual Ambassadors Conference. It was the opportunity to go through our priorities: from European defence to the fight against terrorism, from migration to the Balkans’ path towards the European Union, to the need to keep investing in multilateralism. We face great challenges, and great opportunities too: we can show the immense potential of the European Union, and its crucial role for global peace and development. Here is my speech at the Ambassadors Conference.

If we look outside our borders, we immediately realise that the European Union has become an indispensable power. I think of the 20 billion we invest every year in Africa, 2 billions of which come from the Trust Fund we created at the Valletta summit two years ago, to manage migration flows with our African partners.

The proof of our commitment came from the meeting organised in Paris last week by the French President Emmanuel Macron. With him, with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, with the Presidents of Niger and Chad, Mahamadou Issoufou and Idriss Déby, and Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Serraj, we discussed how to be even more effective in our cooperation on migration: it is a complex phenomenon, and the idea to deal with it by locking ourselves into our borders is simply an illusion. Here are the Paris declaration and the press conference.

Cooperation and partnership are the key to tackle complexity. This is true when we need to bring solidarity to the people hit by hurricane Harvey in the United States (press release here). It is true when we reinforce our historic, cultural and economic ties with Latin America: with Brazilian Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes, in Brussels, we talked about the need to conclude as soon as possible the EU-Mercosur association agreement we have been working on for years (press release here). It is true when we strengthen our relationship with Ukraine: last Friday the Association Agreement with Ukraine entered into force, bringing our citizens even closer and creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs (press release here). And it is also true when it comes to healing old wounds, such as those between Serbia and Kosovo: last Thursday I hosted in Brussels a new meeting with Presidents Aleksandar Vucic and Hashim Thaci, who intend to engage in a new phase on the EU-facilitated dialogue (here is the press release).