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Good morning.

The Ministers today will first of all discuss the situation in Libya. I will debrief them about my visit – I was in Tripoli on Saturday, having good meetings with President [of the Presidency Council of Libya, Fayez al-] Sarraj and the UN Special Envoy [for Libya, Ghassan] Salamé. I will try to focus their attention mainly on the political support we need to give to the political process in the country in view of the elections, and the need to avoid that this derails in view of the latest developments in the Oil Crescent.

Obviously, I guess we will also touch upon some issues that are related to our external management of the migratory flows that we do in partnership with Libya, the good work [EUNAVFOR MED] Operation Sophia is doing to train the Libyan Coast Guards most of all.

We will also discuss about the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea]. I just talked now on the phone with the Foreign Minister of  the Republic of Korea [Ms Kang Kyung-wha], as I discussed this with Secretary [of State of the United States, Mike] Pompeo last week and with the Foreign Minister of Japan [Taro Kono]. The support of the European Union to both the denuclearisation process and the intra-Korean cooperation will continue. We will discuss with the Ministers how to do this at best.

Last but not least, we will prepare our Ministerial with our Eastern partners that we will have in October, so we will have a full debate about our support to our Eastern partners that, for us, are extremely important key partners and key friends. 

Q. How do you estimate Georgia's progress in the Eastern Partnership?

Good. We have very good steps forward with all six Eastern partners, each of them in their own way, but I would say that the progress is there and the work we are doing with them is extremely important, not only for them, but also for us.

Q. What is the message of the European Union to Mr [Donald] Trump, when he says that the European Union is an enemy of the US?

If I was a journalist, I would probably ask him who does he consider his friends. We have very clear in mind who our friends are, the United States for sure and I have said many times that a change in the administration does not change the friendship between countries and peoples. And for sure, we consider the United States friends, partners – close friends and partners. We will always do that.

But we also have many other friends in the world: Canada; South Korea; Japan - tomorrow we are signing a trade agreement with Japan; Australia; New Zealand; today and tomorrow, I am hosting here the Foreign Ministers of all the Latin American and Caribbean countries; Africa and you name it.

So, we have very clear in mind who our friends are and I hope the US administration has clear ideas on who their friends are as well.

Q. You had a meeting with the Foreign Minister of Kuwait [Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al Hamad Al Sabah] on Friday: what was the outcome of the meeting?

Yes, we had an excellent meeting with the Foreign Minister of Kuwait – as always. It is a country with whom we share a common vision of the region and of the international work. By the way, Kuwait is doing an excellent work also in the UN Security Council; we are coordinating very closely with them.

I announced to the Foreign Minister our intention to open an European Union delegation in the country, so good news, and to strengthen even more our cooperation. It is going to be very important, because again, we need friends and partners and we are cultivating our friendship in a very consistent manner.

Thank you.

Link to the video: https://ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/player.cfm?ref=I158957