Slovenian FM urges Austria to honor minority rights

Foreign Minister of Slovenia Tanja Fajon will pay a working visit to Vienna on Friday to meet her Austrian counterpart Beate Meinl-Reisinger. The pair will discuss topical foreign policy and EU issues as well as minority issues. Fajon is expected to call for full implementation of the rights of the Slovenian minority in Austria.

Fajon and Meinl-Reisinger, who was appointed minister in early March, will review cooperation between Slovenia and Austria and opportunities for strengthening it in the areas of common interest, CE Report quotes STA.

According to the Foreign Ministry, Fajon will call for full implementation of the rights of the Slovenian minority in Carinthia and Styria.

The ministers are also expected to discuss ways to strengthen economic and cross-border cooperation, and exchange views on global developments and the situation in the region. Slovenia and Austria share a common interest in the stability and European future of the region, in particular Western Balkan countries.

Fajon and Meinl-Reisinger will visit the exhibition of Slovenian art at the turn of the 20th century, The World in Colours, at the Belvedere Gallery in Vienna.

Slovenia and Austria maintain close ties. The most recent Slovenian high-level visit to Austria was when President Nataša Pirc Musar visited Vienna at the end of January. She met with her Austrian counterpart, Alexander Van der Bellen, to advocate intensification of efforts to resolve the issues of the Slovenian minority in Austria.