Slovenia’s top official described relations with Slovakia as “friendly”. However, he deems it necessary to reinforce bilateral economic cooperation in particular; therefore, he arrived to Slovakia accompanied by a group of fifteen entrepreneurs from Slovenia. “Our trade exchange has recently increased to 800 million euro and I believe it shortly will rise to as much as one billion euro,” Karl Erjavec said.
In addition to bilateral issues, the two officials also discussed relations with the Russian Federation and recent developments in Crimea and Ukraine. “The situation in Ukraine is unacceptable for us. Particularly the latest developments concerning the referendum on Crimea’s independence are, in our opinion, in conflict with international law,” Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič noted. According to the President, Slovakia has neither changed its position on the Kosovo issue. “Slovenia believes that the current crisis between Moscow and Kyiv can only be resolved by diplomatic means, therefore, I believe we’ll manage to do it with the support from the European Union,” Karl Erjavec said.

Both state representatives agreed that the European Union should not forget about continuing integration processes in the Balkan countries amid the situation in Ukraine. According to President Gašparovič, “it is particularly Slovenia and Croatia that should take over the initiative in this respect.”