By: Luka Perš / Nova24tv
“When I came to the Ministry, I immediately received some decisions on the table to sign, which did not seem to me to be in line with common sense. So I asked who made that decision and how the proposed decision could be on the table without first discussing it in my office. I was told it was always done that way. That the “profession” prepared a position, and the Minister then defended it in various forums. We have turned these patterns in a direction that enables an effective, self-confident and, above all, goal-oriented foreign policy,” said Dr Anže Logar in an interview with Siol.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Anže Logar is one of the brightest points of the current government. After years of lost visions in foreign policy under the leadership of Karl Erjavec and Miro Cerar, Slovenia is returning to both the European and international map of the world. In the first year of his term, Anže Logar as Minister of Foreign Affairs, held 50 meetings in Slovenia or abroad, 39 video and audio conferences and 20 official telephone conversations. Logar was the first Slovenian foreign minister after 2012 to visit Croatia, and the first to visit Italy after 2007, writes Siol.
The current Minister of Foreign Affairs managed to get Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo to visit Slovenia last year, and he himself visited him in the United States. Even then, Logar said that our country needs to strengthen relations with the most powerful country in the world in the fields of information and communication technologies, digitalisation and artificial intelligence. He still insists on the words that we must do everything in the power of our country to exploit the potential of good interstate relations. By concluding a strategic dialogue, Logar was able to establish this framework for further close cooperation between the two foreign ministries. “Just these days, the foreign ministry’s political director is visiting his colleague in Washington.”
Slovenia’s media slandering does not resonate abroad. Slovenian foreign policy has become effective and self-confident.
The key to the success of foreign diplomacy under Logar is primarily active diplomacy. He places great emphasis on meetings on a personal level. “Foreign ministers are the first and often the key conversation channel for exchanging views between countries, so it is worth investing in interpersonal relations,” Logar said.
In his early days at the State Department, he got some decisions on the table that he did not think made sense. After a short research, he quickly found out that the “profession” at Mladika was preparing decisions and that foreign ministers had defended them in various forums. “We have turned these patterns in a direction that allows for an effective, confident and, above all, goal-oriented foreign policy.”
Slovenia will take over the presidency of the EU Council in a few days. The current government must face constant media attacks from abroad that the current government wants to turn Slovenia into an authoritarian dictatorial state. Logar points out that “this rumpus, which is driven at home by export-import articles in foreign media, does not resonate abroad”, Logar responded to the media slander of our country abroad.
In the interview, Logar pointed out new paths where he wants Slovenia to play an active role. One of the priorities is also to join the informal group of seven Mediterranean countries MED7. He also joined Slovenia in the informal C5 group of five Central European countries. For the non-paper affair, he said it was just another one of the media spins with which they wanted to weaken the government. At the end, he reminded of the “water fighters” who were nowhere to be found when the mayor of Ljubljana built the environmentally controversial canal C0.