NEWS

Prime Minister Pahor receives US Senators

This afternoon, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, received US Senators Jeanne Shaheen and George Voinovich in Ljubljana, the starting point of their tour of the Western Balkans. Given that Ms Shaheen chairs the Subcommittee on European Affairs and the Western Balkans in the US Senate, the talks mainly focused on the situation in this region.

  

(Photo: Tamino Petelinšek/STA)

    

Mr Pahor assessed the situation in the Western Balkans as quite unstable and announced a conference of heads of state and government on the European perspective for the Western Balkans, to be shortly held in Slovenia. According to the Slovenian Prime Minister, the commitment of the Western Balkan leaders to proceed on their way towards integration into European associations is quite significant. He particularly highlighted the importance of Serbia as a factor of stabilisation and the constructive role of President Tadić. The US Senators welcomed the idea of a conference, however, they pointed out that a joint communication would require a lot of preliminary harmonisation of positions on the Western Balkans. Moreover, Senator Voinovich stressed the importance of a discussion on possible judgements of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding Kosovo's declaration of independence.

   

(Photo: Tamino Petelinšek/STA)

   

At the close of the meeting, Prime Minister Pahor highlighted Slovenia's efforts to mediate in the dispute between Macedonia and Greece over the constitutional name of the Macedonian state since Slovenia is well aware of the sensitivity of the security situation in that country.  Therefore, Slovenia is willing to share its experience gained from the successful resolution of the border dispute with the neighbouring Croatia, resulting in the signing of an arbitration agreement.