Slovenia has been campaigning for almost two years to become a member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and as it takes it seats the country's foreign minister, Tanja Fajon admits Slovenia joins at a time when the World is polarized.

In an exclusive interview with CGTN, Fajon explained that after months of lobbying in many parts of the world for Slovenia's UNSC membership "we are facing the reality now that we must try to resolve the war in Gaza, the Middle East conflict, and that we are dealing with the Russian aggression in Ukraine."

To add to that list Fajon confirmed Slovenia is also strongly condemning the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and is hoping to negotiate a UN resolution to bring it to an end. 

"So this is the reality in the Security Council, and it is deeply polarized. The world is polarized," said Fajon. "We are facing more than 55 armed conflicts, and we have to deal with all these issues. Currently, the Middle East is the focus of the international political sphere. It's a very heated debate about how to protect civilians, how to end the war, how to ensure a permanent ceasefire, and how to come up with a peace plan that will lead to a two-state solution and the recognition of Palestine."

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According to Fajon, besides the Middle East, Slovenia's focus during its term on the UNSC should also be on the situation in Ukraine. Slovenia has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine but Fajon didn't comment on whether Russia need to be involved in any potential peace talks or the fact Moscow has said it is prepared to listen if proposals for a ceasefire if certain conditions are met.

"Slovenia understands Ukrainians in their fight for sovereignty and territorial integrity." Fajon outlined.  "We want to work on the internationally recognized borders. That is why we will stand with Ukraine as long as it takes. But we at the same time wish to do more to establish conditions, to start negotiations for peace, and to see just and lasting peace for Ukraine."

She also addressed the question of whether the EU is in crisis. Fajon sees challenges such as the rising energy costs in the EU, the process of deindustrialization in some major EU countries and anti-establishment protests as an opportunity for the bloc to grow stronger.

"I wouldn't say that the EU is in crisis. We are used to dealing with crises. If I look at previous decades, we had the war in Ukraine, we had Brexit happening, we had the COVID pandemic, and we had an economic and financial crisis. So we are going through years of crisis. But what I always see is the EU gets stronger after each crisis.”

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