Barbados and Slovenia are seeking to enhance the diplomatic relations established in December 2007.
This was the focal point of discussion when Minister of State in Foreign Trade and Business, Sandra Husbands, was paid a courtesy call by the Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia to the Caribbean, Gorazd Renčelj, in the Senate Ante Room at Parliament, today.
Minister Husbands told Ambassador Renčelj that as Barbados seeks to deepen and broaden its relations and engagements with other countries, it is also important to strengthen established ties with those nations which have similar interests and collaborate on common goals, such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and climate change matters.
Both officials agreed that collaboration was necessary between small island states like Barbados and Slovenia, and spoke of the importance of diplomacy.
“I think sometimes we don’t always utilise those linkages to help us back at the capital, because I think that engagement and the greater understanding that people can create … help the world to start to look at how we can do things in a more inclusive way…because we know and now understand other people’s viewpoints, and we understand why it’s necessary that they too succeed.
“If people don’t see that our interests are linked and that your benefit is to my benefit, and if you don’t benefit I create a condition that can eventually hurt me … we will not build a better world,” Minister Husbands stressed.
Ambassador Renčelj, who resides in Brazil, commended the leadership of Barbados, and in particular the active voice of Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley on matters of sustainable development and climate change.
Other areas touched on during the meeting were the Bridgetown Initiative, opportunities for bilateral cooperation with Slovenia on areas of interest, such as apiculture (beekeeping), biodiversity, the twinning of schools, and trade.
Also present at the courtesy call were Permanent Secretary (Ag.), Joy-Ann Skinner, and Foreign Service Officers II, Shireifa Joseph and Jamar Payne.