Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was on a brief visit to Slovenia on Thursday, called for strengthening the transatlantic partnership and finding joint answers to present-day challenges in the area of cyber security and energy policy.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Jansa, Pompeo said that there was a clear difference between free and unfree nations, and that by signing an agreement on cyber security the two countries were also protecting human rights.

Earlier in the day, Pomeo and Slovenian Foreign Minister Anze Logar signed a bilateral statement on security conditions for the introduction of the 5G wireless network technology.

Pompeo also underlined the importance of a stable energy network and energy independence.

Energy sources must be diversified and the USA wants to secure clean energy for Slovenians, the US official said.

Jansa and Pompeo discussed, among other topics, the participation of the United States in a project to build a new block at the Krsko nuclear power plant, once a political decision to that effect is made, as well as possibilities of buying US liquefied gas through terminals envisaged by the economic segment of the Three Seas Initiative.

Jansa told the news conference Slovenians were still grateful to Americans for having freed them from totalitarianisms and for having accepted Slovenian emigrants after World War II.

He said that Americans saved Slovenians twice in the 20th century, first from Nazism and Fascism, and later from Communism.

“Slovenia wants to be a credible partner in NATO and wants to continue, together with the United States, the policy that enabled the fall of the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall,” said the Slovenian PM.

He added that Europe and the USA were faced with challenges that were not less serious than the challenges of several decades ago, and that Slovenia would work on strengthening the transatlantic partnership also during its presidency of the EU in the second half of 2021.

Speaking of the security challenges, he cited the danger of cyber attacks.

We see the USA as the only power of Western civilisation capable of dealing with new types of security threats, Jansa said.