President of the Republic of Slovenia Borut Pahor and Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov advocate the continuation of friendly relations between the countries

The President of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, today received the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov, who is on a working visit to Slovenia. In their talks, the president and the foreign minister advocated the continuation of friendly relations between the countries at all levels; this includes the economy, culture, science and sports as well as bilateral and multilateral political relations – the latter especially in the framework of the European Union.

In recent years, the Republic of Slovenia and the Russian Federation have raised the general level of cooperation by concluding several agreements and international acts to form ties between the two strategic partners, which are reflected in numerous economic initiatives, in the cooperation in the project of modernisation of the Russian economy as well as in the framework of the European Union and the United Nations. The Russian foreign minister pointed to South Stream as one of the key common projects in the field of energy and infrastructure. The President confirmed that Slovenia has had positive experiences with investments from the Russian Federation and that it will continue to welcome Russian investments in the future.

The Russian foreign minister particularly highlighted the importance of the Russian Chapel under the Vršič peak for the Russian public, and expressed his interest in a ceremony to be held in 2016 on the 100^th anniversary of its construction. President Pahor took the opportunity to extend the invitation to the President of the Russian Federation, Mr Putin, to visit Slovenia as a part of the celebration of the anniversary. The president and the foreign minister undertook to continue the support to the Strategic Partnership between the EU and the Russian Federation. The Russian foreign minister expressed his great support to the Forum of Slavic Cultures, which was established by Slovenia and Russia, and promised that the Russian Federation will continue its active cooperation with and support to the forum.

The president and the foreign minister also touched upon other current foreign policy issues with a particular emphasis on the situation in the Western Balkans. They advocated further strengthening of political dialogue and activities that will enable the resolution of the remaining open bilateral and regional issues in the Western Balkan region.


Photo: Stanko Gruden/STA