I do think that the only countries that are capable of working together are democracies.

And therefore, the first thing you have to do is to preserve your own democracy.

Welcome to EU Confidential. I'm Andrew Gray, Politico's EU editor in Brussels. And you just heard the voice of Robert Cooper, former senior diplomat, a Brit who spent much of his career trying to build a common EU foreign policy. He explores the art of diplomacy down the centuries in his new book, The Ambassadors, we'll hear about the characters he

profiles, the lessons he's drawn, and what he thinks about big EU foreign policy challenges

today, including relations with China. Later in the podcast, we'll also dive into the EU's

big food fight, the battle for hundreds of millions of euros in farm subsidies.

One of the big questions, how green will the final deal be?

But first to the extraordinary story that dominated the start of this week.

The forced landing in Minsk of a Ryanair jet that was flying between two EU capitals, followed by the detention

of Belarusian opposition activist and journalist Roman Pratisievich and his partner

Sophia Sapega.

This all took place on the eve of a summit of EU leaders, who talked tough on Belarus and

approve new sanctions as well. But will their response make

any difference? And why did Alexander Lukashenko go to such lengths on the EU's doorstep?

Let's get into all of that now with our podcast panel. So a warm welcome to Riemontas in Paris. Hi,

Rene. Hello all. Chief Brussels correspondent

David Herzenhorne, naturally enough, in Brussels. Hi, David. Hi there. And joining us also this week,

an editor who is perfectly placed to talk about our main topic, Jan Chensky, Jan's in Brussels as well

this week. Hi, Jan. Hi. And you're particularly

well qualified because you know Belarus well and you also oversee coverage of mobility, which

of course includes the aviation sector. And we had a story where both of those areas, if you like,

collided this week. So one of the interesting

...