Dnevnik laments lack of substance in Slovenia’s foreign policy

Ljubljana – Soon to be one hundred days into its term, the government’s biggest foreign policy achievement it to have moved the country away from the Visegrad Quarter. In other areas, visible shifts or achievements are nowhere to be seen, Dnevnik comments on Saturday.

Recalling declarations by PM Golob and FM Fajon about Slovenia’s return to the core of the EU, Dnevnik says that form has once again become the most important political substance. “But this can only serve as a basis for a substantive foreign policy, it cannot be its only goal.”

The paper notes that Slovenia is returning to the Franco-German train, which Paris and Berlin are happy about. In the past Slovenia did not know exactly what to do on this train, but after a hundred days of foreign policy reorientation, it is time that the rhetoric is followed by substance and a carefully crafted strategy.

Likewise, there are “preciously few strategic deliberations” in relations with neighbouring countries. “The members of the current government having been very critical of attempts at rapprochement between Zagreb and Ljubljana under the Janša government, they are now using an almost identical vocabulary and the approach to resolve easier issues before the hard ones.”

“At times it seems that the current government is stuck in its opposition role and with its opposition ideals, shaped as they are by European and global realpolitik. Now that we know which values Slovenia is committed to once again, it would be time to learn what its foreign policy is,” the paper concludes in Ideals Known, Strategy and Substance Missing.

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