Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto to visit Slovenia
Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit Slovenia and attend the 2019 Bled Strategic Forum on 3 September. The Forum will gather heads of state, foreign ministers, representatives of international organisations, and leaders representing business life and academia.
Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto will have bilateral meetings with Slovenia’s President Borut Pahor, Prime Minister Marjan Sarec and Minister of Foreign Affairs Miro Cerar. The topics of discussion will include foreign policy matters and questions that are topical in the EU as well as Finland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Slovenia will hold the Presidency of the Council of the EU in the latter half of 2021.
At the Bled Strategic Forum, organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia, Haavisto will give keynote speeches at two panel discussions: the panel on climate change and the panel on regional development in Western Balkans. During the Forum, the Minister will have several bilateral meetings with other high-level participants.
Bilateral meetings will take place, for example, with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean Nasser Kamel, and foreign ministers of several EU Member States, including Spain’s Foreign Minister Josep Borrell, who will be the next High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
“Slovenia and Finland are EU Member States and like-minded partners. Like Finland, Slovenia wants to show leadership in climate change mattes, which also shows in the agenda of the Bled Strategic Forum. Paving the way of the Western Balkans for EU membership is also among our shared interests and the matter will be one of the topics of our discussion,” Haavisto says
Inquiries: Katja Kalamäki, Diplomatic Adviser to the Minister, tel. +358 295 351 518, and Markku Lampinen, Director, Unit for South-Eastern Europe, tel. + 358 295 350 164
The Foreign Ministry’s email addresses are in the format [email protected].