SLOVENIA WILL NOT ATTEND FRIENDS OF IRAQ

C O N F I D E N T I A L LJUBLJANA 000248 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/06/2018 TAGS: IZ MARR MOPS OTRA PREL SI SUBJECT: SLOVENIA WILL NOT ATTEND FRIENDS OF IRAQ CONFERENCE REF: A. STATE 60393 ¶B. STATE 50592 Classified By: Ambassador Yousif B. Ghafari for reasons 1.4 (b,d) ¶1. (C) On June 6, MFA Security Policy Division Director Stanislav Vidovic told Emboff that Slovenia is not planning to send a delegation to the June 17 - 19 Friends of Iraq conference in Abu Dhabi due to the demands of Slovenia's ongoing EU Presidency. Vidovic stated that because of EU Presidency obligations, the MFA is very short-staffed and consequently no one is available to attend the conference. (Note: Slovenia is currently facing a torrent of activity: the June 10 U.S.-EU Summit, the June 16-18 Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism meeting in Madrid (where Vidovic will represent the EU),the June 19-20 EU Council, the June 26 EU-Russia Summit, and a number of other events before the conclusion of its EU Presidency on June 30. End note.) Vidovic noted that Slovenia coordinates its contributions to the multilateral mission in Iraq primarily through Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe and that he expects Slovenia will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. GHAFARI