Pirc Musar to visit Vienna on Wednesday
Ljubljana/Vienna, 26 January - President Nataša Pirc Musar will visit Vienna on Wednesday to meet her Austrian counterpart Alexander Van der Bellen and attend the opening of a Slovenian painting exhibition at the Belvedere Museum. She will also visit the headquarters of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
Brdo pri Kranju
President Nataša Pirc Musar.
Photo: Bor Slana/STA
File photo
The aim of the meeting is to exchange views on topical bilateral and international issues, the president's office said.
Pirc Musar was on an official visit to Vienna in April 2023, a few months after she assumed office. During that visit, the two presidents focused on bilateral issues and the situation of the Slovenian minority in Austria.
The relations between Slovenia and Austria are good, but there are some open issues.
This year will mark the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Austrian State Treaty, whose Article 7 guarantees minority rights.
The representatives of Slovenia and the Slovenian minority have been pointing out that more efforts are needed to fully meet the commitments made under this article.
Their implementation is particularly important when it comes to bilingual education and the public use of the Slovenian language.
The minority is hopeful that minority rights and their full implementation will be on the agenda of Austria's next government. Currently, the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) and the conservative People's Party (OVP) are engaged in coalition talks.
One of the open issues between Slovenia and Austria is also border checks, which Austria introduced in 2015, at the peak of a migrant crisis, and has been extending ever since.
Pirc Musar and Van der Bellen are also expected to discuss the Ukraine war, Middle East conflict, Western Balkans situation and fight against climate change.
After the meeting, the Slovenian president will visit the OSCE headquarters where she will discuss current security issues in Europe with the organisation's Secretary General Feridun Sinirlioglu.
In the evening, accompanied by her husband Aleš Musar, the president will attend the opening of the World in Colors at the Belvedere Museum together with Van der Bellen and his wife Doris Schmidauer.
The exhibition will present the highlights of Slovenian painting from the era of national emancipation, spanning from the revolution year of 1848 to the collapse of the Austria-Hungary empire in 1918.
Organised in cooperation with Slovenia's National Gallery, the World in Colors is the biggest exhibition of Slovenian painting in Vienna so far. It will run until 25 May.