The Government of the Republic of Slovenia has announced that this year’s Bled Strategic Forum, which will take place on the 1st and 2nd of September, will be attended by a record number of foreign leaders – the highest number in the history of the event.
“Another year has gone by, and on Wednesday, we will meet again at the Bled Strategic Forum,” Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša reminded everyone of the upcoming event on his social media profile. Last year’s event at Bled already brought a record number of foreign representatives who participated in the Strategic Forum, but this year, the cast will be even stronger, which testifies to the increasingly important role of the event and the reputation of Slovenia, which is the host country. To convince so many eminent foreign statesmen to show up, you have to show a considerable degree of respect in the international community.
The government has not yet revealed the names of all the participants, but a few are known already. These are the Prime Minister of Montenegro Zdravko Krivokapić, the Prime Minister of Northern Macedonia Zoran Zaev, the Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama, the Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Andrej Babiš, the Prime Minister of Croatia Andrej Plenković, the Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki, the President of the European Parliament David Sassoli, European Commissioner Dubravka Šuica, and the President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev.
Stong diplomacy is needed for such a top-notch organisation of an event
Another interesting fact to add here is that in 2019, when the government was led by Marjan Šarec, the Bled Strategic Forum was attended by only one Prime Minister – Šarec himself. The situation was pretty similar in 2014 when the government was led by Miro Cerar. The attendance of foreign statesmen says a lot about the diplomatic activities during the days of the left-wing governments. To put it mildly, it was very modest.
Sara Kovač
