“The strategic partnership plan that I signed with Mr Le Drian will deepen and add new impetus to the cooperation between Slovenia and France in a number of areas. The plan covers the period when both France and Slovenia will hold the presidency of the Council of the EU in 2021 and 2022,” said Mr Cerar, after the signing.

“Slovenia and France are allies and partners, and strong advocates of the rule of law and human rights, and emphasise the importance of multilateralism in their actions. Slovenia wants to work closely with France on its preparations for the presidency, when it will actually hand over the presidency to France,” said Mr Cerar, after talks with his French counterpart.

The two foreign ministers committed to close consultations between government representatives on all issues covered by the strategic partnership plan, including specific forms of political cooperation, economic cooperation, and promotion of tourism, culture, science, research, education and sport. Paris will host the Olympics and Paralympics in 2024.

France is Slovenia’s fifth-largest trading partner, and is named as one of its priority markets in the International Challenges 2019-2020 programme. Slovenia sees great potential for cooperation in the area of digitalisation and AI.

“We are convinced that the action plan, which covers cooperation in science and innovation, information and communication technology, and artificial intelligence, will help to expand economic cooperation between Slovenia and France,” added Mr Cerar at the talks.