A plenary session of Slovenian-Russian inter-governmental commission for economic cooperation was held in the morning at government premises. It was chaired by the Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Karl Erjavec, and the head of the Russian delegation, Minister of Communications and Mass Media Nikolai Nikiforov. in view of the sanctions introduced by the EU against Russia, the Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs said that this economic meeting was in total compliance with the EU guidelines.

In his opinion Russia is an important economic partner. They discussed the prospect of economic cooperation, and found a number of opportunities for economic cooperation in different fields, e.g. small and medium size companies, agricultural machinery, automobile industry, tourism, transport…

Yesterday the Slovenian businessmen and diplomats also held a meeting with the delegation of Tatarstan, one of the wealthiest Russian republic, and discussed the possibility of economic cooperation which is presently rather scarce, if compared to cooperation with some other countries members of the European Union, e.g. Bulgaria, or Hungary.

EU responsible for abolishment of the South Stream project
Among other topics the abolishment of the South Stream project was also discussed at the Slovenian-Russian meeting, of which Slovenia was officially informed at this occasion. Minister Nikiforov explained that it would be impossible to realize the project under conditions directed by the EU. Pipeline to Europe will now be built with Turkey.

Minister Erjavec said this does not mean the end of energy cooperation with Russia, as the economy could cooperate at energy projects in the Middle Asia, especially in the field of hydroelectric power.

Although Russia is at the moment going through a severe financial crisis due to the drastic rouble slump, which is causing problems also to Slovenian investors and exporters to the Russian market, and the stock exchange value of Krka and Gorenje has substantially decreased, both Ministers remained quite optimistic regarding the economic cooperation and potential investments, as those are long-term projects, and the crisis will not last forever.

"I am counting on the fact that companies which are present at the Russian market operate on long-term basis, and that they had included such risks," Erjavec said. According to him, we are living in the global world, and we all know what was going on in Slovenia years ago, and that we have not dealt with all the problems yet, even with the economic growth in Slovenia. He believes that no market can only grow, and he hopes that the Slovenian managers are capable to take that into consideration.

Nikiforov believes that businessmen will be capable of making the right decisions. "Negative trends on one side can be at the same time an opportunity to increase investments, and import into Slovenia," he explained.