NEWS

Slovenian Prime Minister meets NATO special envoy

The Slovenian Prime Minister, Borut Pahor, today met with General Stéphane Abrial, a special envoy of the NATO Secretary-General, who was visiting Ljubljana to discuss NATO's Smart Defence Initiative. Elaborating on the essence of this initiative, General Abrial highlighted its basic purpose, which is to increase efficiency in establishing and developing the Alliance's defence capacities, while spending less money and promoting a concerted approach and interaction between NATO member states and their partner countries.

   

The new aspect of this strategic initiative is to pay more attention to the fundamental positions, views and needs of the Alliance's member states, an approach that will positively influence the level of consensus on the initiative-related political commitments and long-term guidelines expected to be adopted at the Chicago NATO summit in May this year. In Mr Pahor's view, the Smart Defence initiative is an appropriate response to the current adverse global economic and financial situation; therefore, he welcomes the efforts made by NATO leaders in their attempts to implement this concept. Moreover, he promised his guest that he would do his utmost to see to it that the new Slovenian government would continue to maintain a positive attitude towards the Smart Defence Initiative, while in his capacity as a future member of the parliamentary branch of power, he would contribute, to the best of his ability, to increasing the awareness of the Slovenian political sphere and the wider public that national security should also be based on our country's NATO membership in the future.