Slovenian Leader Praises Sincere Dialogue With Russian President

Slovenian President Borut Pahor told journalists that his dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin has always been open and sincere, while the meeting held earlier in the day took twice the time initially allocated for the talks.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — "Our dialogue has always been sincere and open, and nothing has changed. Even when the relations worsened a bit between the EU and NATO, on one side, and Russia, on the other, between our countries everything remained the same," Pahor said adding that this is the fifth time he met with Putin over the past eight years.

Pahor added that Slovenia, despite being a member both of the European Union and NATO, did everything possible to continue open dialogue and to look for mutually acceptable solutions "for the relation between Russia and the EU to improve".

"Today we spent twice the time planned for the talks. We exchanged opinions, they may differ at some points, but we remain true to the idea of moving closer together, of commitment to the decisions that will ensure the settlement of the situation in the eastern Ukraine," Pahor said.

At the Friday meeting between the leadership of Russia and Slovenia the Russian side was also represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and presidential aide Yury Ushakov. The Slovenian delegation included Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec and presidential adviser on foreign affairs Marko Makovec.

The previous meeting of the Slovenian and Russian leaders took place in July 2016 where they focused on economic partnership, strengthening bilateral relations as well as on ways of fighting terrorism.