On Tuesday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Tanja Fajon paid an official visit to Northern Macedonia, where she was hosted by her Macedonian counterpart Bujar Osmani. A new visit and another diplomatic slip – the Slovak flag was put on the table instead of the Slovenian one. This is proof that we have a very “visible” Minister if, even in Macedonia, she was mistaken for a Slovak. It is clear from the photograph that she does not care about the fact that the flag is of another country.
However, this is not the first diplomatic slip-up of the current Golob government; Slovenian Democratic Party MP Anja Bah Žibert recalled that the Croatian President did not even fly the flag when Tanja Fajon visited him, and in Macedonia, she was greeted by the Slovak flag.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs represents Slovenia in other countries and international organisations, monitors international political and economic relations, and develops Slovenia’s relations with other countries. We can now see how important we really are in the international sphere since other countries are not even taking us seriously. Other media outlets have also made this clear. They also posted a summary of the official visit with pictures on the Foreign
Ministry’s Twitter account, but they left out this particular picture. Apparently, it was too embarrassing to publish.
But let’s think back to the position we held in the international space when Janez Janša was still the Prime Minister, and Anže Logar was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. After years of lost visions in foreign policy under the leadership of Karl Erjavec and Miro Cerar, Slovenia had returned to both the European and international map, but with Tanja Fajon, we have fallen off of it again. In just two years in office, Logar, as a Foreign Minister, held well over a hundred bilateral meetings, more than 50 video and audio conferences and dozens of official telephone conversations. He visited some 70 foreign capitals, and he also held the Presidency of the Council of the European Union – and according to his partners, he did it with distinction. Logar was also the first Slovenian Foreign Minister to visit Croatia since 2012 and the first to visit Italy since 2007.
We should also think back to the beginning of the Russian attack on Ukraine. When, in the midst of the worst storm of the war, the Slovenian, Polish and Czech Prime Ministers arrived in Kyiv by train, completely unannounced. Practically the whole world was talking about this diplomatic event, and Janez Janša was called as a guest for commentary in some of the world-famous media outlets, such as CNN. Unfortunately, we have lost all that with the new government.
Sara Kovač
