1. During his visit to Slovenia from August 26 to 28 for the Bled Strategic Forum 2023, Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin had a bilateral meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovenia Tanja Fajon on August 28 following their informal luncheon on August 27. The two sides exchanged views on Korea-Slovenia relations and substantive cooperation as well as their cooperation at the United Nations Security Council. Foreign Minister Park also took the opportunity to request Slovenia’s support for Korea’s bid to host World Expo 2030 in Busan.

2. Foreign Minister Park appreciated the active high-level exchanges between the two countries including the bilateral meeting held on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in February and Foreign Minister Fajon’s visit to Korea in June. He also conveyed gratitude to Foreign Minister Fajon for extending to him a special invitation to the Bled Strategic Forum as a panelist.

3. Foreign Minister Fajon welcomed the first visit to Slovenia by a Korean Foreign Minister in 18 years following the one in 2006 by then Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon and the first attendance of a Korean Foreign Minister at a Bled Strategic Forum, Central and Eastern Europe’s leading arena for discussions on international issues.

4. During their meeting, the two Foreign Ministers agreed that value-sharing Korea and Slovenia will work together in such areas as the automobile industry, ports and logistics, nuclear power plants, the digital area and artificial intelligence (AI), and public health and medical care. The two sides also agreed to cooperate closely by building on their achievements, including their election to serve on the UN Security Council from 2024 as non-permanent members.

5. Foreign Minister Park expressed gratitude to Foreign Minister Fajon for her high appreciation of Korea’s aspiration and efforts to become the host of World Expo 2030 and asked for support of Slovenia, Korea’s major cooperative partner in the West Balkans and sharer of universal values. Foreign Minister Fajon, noting that Korea is very well prepared to become the host of the World Expo, looked forward to good results for Korea.

6. The two Foreign Ministers also exchanged views on key regional issues, such as those concerning the Korean Peninsula and Ukraine. Foreign Minister Park explained the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)’s second attempt to launch a so-called satellite as a flagrant violation of UN Security Council resolutions as well as the DPRK’s grave human rights situation, asking for continued support of Slovenia for the Korean government’s policies toward North Korea including the Audacious Initiative. Foreign Minister Fajon stated that Slovenia, which values multilateralism and the UN Charter, considers the DPRK’s provocations an issue of not only Northeast Asia but the entire world; voiced concern over the grave human rights situation in the DPRK; and reaffirmed support for the Korean government’s Audacious Initiative.