The two officials addressed the main political dossiers of the Slovenian EU Council Presidency on international development cooperation and humanitarian aid. In this context, they emphasised the importance of humanitarian, development and peace integration.

They underlined the leading role of the European Union in addressing the effects of climate change at the global level, drawing particular attention to the strategic importance of water and the need for the World Water Council to adopt decisions that are expected to be made during the Slovenian Presidency.

The two State Secretaries also emphasised the need to further strengthen solidarity with partner countries with low COVID-19 vaccine availability, which is being alleviated by bilateral activities as well as joint activities at EU level. State Secretary Dr. Raščan went on to inform his counterpart about Slovenia’s plan to contribute, within a two-year period, half a million euros to the COVAX AMC mechanism designed to ensure vaccine distribution and mitigate the consequences of the pandemic in developing countries.