Borut Pahor, the President of Slovenia, said that countries in the Balkans were at risk of major instability due to the war in Ukraine. Pahor also called for accession for Bosnia into the EU and the NATO alliance. A forum was informed that Brussels must reach some sort of consensus to integrate the Western Balkans as Pahor said Brussels should also work to convince Serbia to choose the EU path over an alliance with China and Russia.

Tanja Fajon, the Slovenian Foreign Minister, said “We don’t want another Iron Curtain in Europe.” He added that a decade-old process to unite Europe had been halted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and many European countries do not have the capacity to manage the fallout from the crisis.