Farewell meeting between the Ambassador of New Zealand and the President of Slovenia
Ljubljana, 01/21/2003 | press release
President of the Republic of Slovenia Janez Drnovšek today welcomed on a farewell visit the Ambassador of New Zealand Peter Robert Bennett, who covers diplomatic relations with Slovenia from Rome. They agreed that relations between the two countries are very good but due to distance and the limited resources of these relatively small countries, their present scope is limited.
Ambassador Bennett stated that Slovenia has achieved great success in the international arena with its invitations to join the European Union and NATO. He emphasised that the European Union is a most important group of countries for New Zealand and that the dialogue between Slovenia and New Zealand will continue to strengthen when Slovenia becomes a member. He further noted that New Zealand is actively involved in the efforts of the international community to resolve conflicts and that its soldiers are participating in the NATO mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is a very useful experience for New Zealand.
Ambassador Bennett and President Drnovšek also touched on the Iraq crisis. President Drnovšek emphasised the importance of multilateral support for possible intervention and said that the resolution of the Iraq crisis has so far taken place under the auspices of the United Nations and the Security Council. They both agreed that the United States is aware of how important multilateral support is for undertaking any action in Iraq and that unilateral intervention by the United States is unlikely.
At the end of the meeting, Ambassador Bennett thanked President Drnovšek for the meeting and for the very cooperative relationship he enjoyed with the President of Slovenia. President Drnovšek thanked him for his contribution to the development of good relations between their countries and expressed the hope that the open invitation to the Prime Minister of New Zealand and other political representatives of New Zealand to visit Slovenia would soon be accepted.