Matej Tonin

Munich – President Borut Pahor held several bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, focussing on the Ukraine crisis, including with his Finish and Montenegrin counterparts.

Brussels – Defence Minister Matej Tonin said on Thursday that Slovenian soldiers remain in Mali for now and continue training Mali troops. The statement comes after France announced its troops would withdraw from this African country, where Slovenia currently has nine soldiers in the EU Training Mission (EUTM).

Brussels – Slovenia is still among the NATO countries with the lowest defence spending. It ranks 25th in terms of efforts to have 2% of GDP allocated for defence and 26th when it comes to defence investments, Defence Minister Matej Tonin said in Brussels on Thursday as a two-day NATO ministerial drew to a close.

Brussels – Defence Minister Matej Tonin said Slovenia was interested in hosting a regional maintenance base for US-made OshKosh armoured vehicles as he held talks on Thursday with US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin.

Slovenia bought three dozen OshKosh vehicles last year and Tonin noted countries in the Western Balkans were among the buyers as well.

Ljubljana – A court in Kamnik has turned down a damages suit that ex-Prime Minister Marjan Šarec’s state secretary for national security Damir Črnčec has filed against New Slovenia (NSi) leader Matej Tonin after the latter accused him of abusing the SOVA intelligence and security agency for political purposes, N1 news portal has reported.

Ljubljana – The coalition New Slovenia (NSi) on Friday launched a campaign promoting amendments to the income tax act, which will include the collecting of signatures in support of the changes in the run-up to the official election campaign.

Ljubljana – Defence Minister Matej Tonin and his British counterpart Ben Wallace met in Ljubljana on Wednesday to discuss mainly the developments in Ukraine and the situation in the Western Balkans. “A bad peace is better than a good war,” said Tonin, commenting on the former, as Wallace again called on Russia to maintain dialogue.

Ljubljana – Parliamentary Speaker Igor Zorčič has tested positive for coronavirus and is in self-isolation, the parliament said on Friday, while Defence Minister Matej Tonin, the president of the coalition New Slovenia (NSi), also said on Twitter he has tested positive.

Zorčič tested positive on Thursday and was thus among the 9,858 infections confirmed in Slovenia that day.

Ljubljana – Defence Minister Matej Tonin took part on Tuesday in the 2021 annual conference of the European Defence Agency (EDA), which focused on innovation in the field of defence. Tonin highlighted the role of defence innovation for the development of strategic and technological sovereignty, said the Defence Ministry.

Ljubljana/Brussels – Defence Minister Matej Tonin and Slovenia’s EU Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarčič hosted on Tuesday a virtual event on knowledge exchange and dialogue in civil protection and disaster management at the EU level, which accompanied the launch of the Knowledge Network online platform.