NEWS

Prime Minister Janez Janša holds a series of meetings prior to NATO Summit

Prior to the NATO Summit session in Chicago, the Slovenian Prime Minister, Janez Janša, today attended a number of bilateral meetings. He met with the President of the Republic of Macedonia, Gjorge Ivanov, and the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev. He then also met later with the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Igor Lukšić, and the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia, Julia Gillard.
 
After the meetings, the Slovenian Prime Minister explained that on the margins of events such as the NATO Summit some time is usually given to bilateral meetings with those countries with whom meetings are held relatively infrequently on account of their geographical distance, and with countries calling for intensive contacts "on account of relevant cooperation procedures in which we are involved".
 
In the Slovenian Prime Minister's words, Slovenia has no unresolved issues with Macedonia or Montenegro, and the countries are involved in developing economic cooperation.  For several years, Slovenia has been providing assistance to both countries on their integration into Euro-Atlantic structures, due to which the participants accordingly exchanged their views concerning the further necessary steps to be taken by both countries on their way towards NATO and EU membership. The views exchanged between the Macedonian President, Gjorge Ivanov, the Montenegrin President, Igor Lukšić, and the Slovenian Prime Minister, Janez Janša, concerned expediting economic cooperation, "which is in our interests, as well as in the interests of both partner countries".
 
The talks with the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev were essential owing to the extremely important strategic role this country has for the whole European continent. This is not only due to its current role with regard to resolving the situation in Afghanistan, but above all due to its importance in terms of energy potential and energy security, which was the main topic of discussion at the talks. In addition, Prime Minister Janša and President Aliyev discussed ramping up economic cooperation between Slovenia and Azerbaijan, since Azerbaijan has recently made sizeable investments in Western Balkan countries. "This is the reason why we have informed the Azerbaijani side of the improvements made in our economic environment and of the changes made to Slovenian tax legislation. Given their investments in the region, there is potential for developing joint cooperation," the Slovenian Prime Minister explained.
 
In the Prime Minister's view, the meeting with the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, was particularly important in view of the fact that Australia is Slovenia's fifth most important economic partner in Asia and Oceania. "We tried to pique their interest in making further promotions and investments in Slovenia as a result of changes we have introduced," the Prime Minister explained. The two prime ministers devoted most of their attention to the situation in the euro area; the Australian Prime Minister was particularly interested in addressing the euro crisis in light of the recent events in Greece. The Slovenian Prime Minister also mentioned that he and his Australian counterpart had discussed the possibility of an official high-level visit to Slovenia by the Australian side in view of the fact "that no such visit has taken place in the past twenty years, despite the fact that Slovenian–Australian relations exceed the minimum level of contacts and despite the presence of a large Slovenian community in Australia, which was also the subject of the discussion". During their talks, the two prime ministers exchanged their views on the situation in Afghanistan.