News

Prime Minister Robert Golob met with Nasser Abu Baker, the President of the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate, to discuss the situation in Palestine, with a focus on the war in Gaza.

On the sidelines of the Bled Strategic Forum, Ms. Tanja Fajon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovenia, and Mr. Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), signed a €4 million agreement to support the Agency’s work over the next four years (2025 – 2028), including €1 million per year in fully flexible funding.

At the Informal Meeting of EU Ministers for Foreign Affairs in Copenhagen, under the Danish EU Presidency, ministers addressed the decision of the United States to deny visas to the Palestinian delegation to the UN General Assembly in September. Minister Fajon urged her EU counterparts to take measures against Israel, either by consensus or, if necessary, by qualified majority.

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Slovenia and Spain strongly condemn the most recent Israeli offensive launched in the Strip and the announcement to establish a permanent presence in Gaza City.

The meeting between Prime Minister Robert Golob and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine, Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, focused mainly on presenting the current situation in Gaza and the West Bank.

Minister Tanja Fajon hosted the Palestinian Authority's State Minister for Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Varsen Aghabekian Shahin during her first official visit since Slovenia recognised Palestine. The two ministers used this opportunity to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on the development of relations between the two countries, which enables the establishment of a formal framework for a systematic dialogue and regular political and practical cooperation.

The humanitarian suffering in Gaza has reached unimaginable levels. Famine is unfolding before our eyes. Urgent action is needed now to halt and reverse starvation. Humanitarian space must be protected, and aid should never be politicised.

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain strongly condemn the recent announcement by the Government of Israel of the intensification of the occupation and the military offensive, including in Gaza city. This decision will only deepen the humanitarian crisis and further endanger the remaining hostages’ lives. This operation will lead to an unacceptable high toll of deaths and the forced displacement of nearly one million Palestinian civilians.

At the initiative of Prime Minister Robert Golob, the Government today approved a decision to provide additional humanitarian aid to the Palestinian civilian population. The security and humanitarian situation in Gaza is becoming increasingly untenable and continues to deteriorate rapidly.

Speaking at the UN high-level conference on the peaceful resolution of the Palestinian question and the implementation of the two-state solution at the UN headquarters in New York, Tanja Fajon, Slovenia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, emphasised the need for immediate action. “The only way to achieve peace in the Middle East is to implement the two-state solution: Israel and Palestine.”

We, the signatories listed below, come together with a simple, urgent message: the war in Gaza must end now.

Prime Minister Dr. Robert Golob today received Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Minister Tanja Fajon participated in the EU Foreign Affairs Council to discuss the current situation in the Middle East, with a particular focus on Iran, Israel and Gaza, Russian aggression against Ukraine, China and European security. The Minister also presented the joint contribution of the MED9 Group towards the preparation of the New Pact for the Mediterranean, which had been led by Slovenia.

On this day, Slovenia, by recognising Palestine as an independent and sovereign state, sent a clear signal about the need to reinstate peace in the Middle East and implement the two-state solution, in the hope that other countries would follow suit. A responsible member of the EU and a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Slovenia strives for immediate ceasefire and humanitarian aid in the region.

In his talks with European Council President António Costa yesterday, Prime Minister Golob once again called on the EU Member States to discuss the freezing of the EU-Israel Association Agreement at the upcoming European Council meeting.

At the invitation of the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister Robert Golob visited Madrid today. On the occasion of the anniversary of Palestine’s recognition, Prime Minister Golob and Spanish Prime Minister Sánchez issued a joint statement, in which they called, among other things, for an immediate end to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, the respect for international law, and urged Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government to stop the massacre in Gaza.

One year after the official recognition of the State of Palestine by Ireland, Norway, Slovenia and Spain, in the framework of the ‘Madrid+’ Group of the meeting, we have met to renew and reinforce the international commitment for the implementation of the two-State solution and to the principle that only a viable, contiguous Palestinian State, with internationally recognised borders, comprised of Gaza and the West Bank and with East Jerusalem as its capital, can fully satisfy the legitimate national aspirations and the needs of peace and security of both the people of Palestine and Israel.

In a ministerial meeting of the extended Madrid Group of the Global Alliance, Minister Tanja Fajon called for immediate action, stressing that words alone cannot bring peace to Gaza, where civilians are dying by the minute. She once again urged countries that still hesitate to recognise Palestine, as Slovenia did a year ago, to take this step.

At the regular meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, Minister Tanja Fajon emphasized that "business as usual" with the Israeli government, which is bombing hospitals, destroying schools and turning refugee camps into dust, is no longer possible: "As humans, we must ask ourselves how long we will continue to watch the catastrophe in Gaza unfold before our eyes." The ministers also discussed the peace negotiations in Ukraine and the situation in Syria.

Whilst we acknowledge indications of a limited restart of aid, Israel blocked humanitarian aid entering Gaza for over two months. Food, medicines and essential supplies are exhausted. The population faces starvation. Gaza’s people must receive the aid they desperately need.