US Bases in Slovenia
Slovenia has been a member of NATO since 2004 and has been working since then to be a NATO-interoperable combat force. The Colorado Guard has been a partner with Slovenia as part of the National Guard Bureau’s State Partnership Program for more than 14 years. Although a number of friendly nations are potential hosts to conduct these types of training exercises, Colorado leverages every opportunity to further cement the relationship between Colorado and Slovenia.
In general terms, joint combined exchange training is a small unit mission conducted by an Operational Detachment-Alpha, which allows Special Forces soldiers to train on one of their seven doctrinal missions: Foreign Internal Defense (FID) operations. FID involves working with a host nation’s military and police forces to improve their technical skills so they may defend themselves from insurgency, secure their sovereign territory and prevent insurgent threats from becoming international terrorist capabilities.
Slovenia is a European country bordered by Austria, Hungary, Croatia and Italy to the west, as well as a little slice of Adriatic coastline. It has been part of the European Union since May 1, 2004. Slovenia, while a Yugoslavian state, was the first to declare – and fight for – its independence in June of 1991. The 10-day war suffered only 18 deaths on both sides.
On 16 November 2020 Prime Minister Janša responded to a statement by Marjan Šarec about tweeting in connection with the American elections, pointing out: “I will be happy to congratulate whoever is elected next US President. Slovenia nurtures good strategic relations as a partner with the US, regardless of the administration in charge. This has been the case in all the administrations I've led and will remain the case in the future,” said Primer Minister Janša. He also pointed out that the election is over either when the other side concedes a defeat or the official results are proclaimed. “Some have decided to follow the media wave with congratulations but I have decided otherwise. We will see who was right, but I assure you that this will not affect the future relations between Slovenia and the United States,” stated Prime Minister Janša.
He continued by highlighting that events related to the US presidential elections could even improve international relations between the US and Slovenia. Because those who clearly opposed steps to establish good working and operational relations with the United States over the past six months and tried to complicate the adoption of the act aiming at strengthening our own participation in the joint defence efforts that the United States promote regardless of who the president is or to which party the president belongs have suddenly changed their position and become pro-American.
He went on emphasising: “And now that you are all pro-American, I hope that you will support our proposal to the United States for placing a US military rotation unit in Slovenia with such unanimity. And that in the future you will endorse Slovenia's dedication to meet its obligations in NATO, where the United States is the central factor, more consistently. I am somehow very happy with the pro-American wave seen recently. I can hardly imagine that a single tweet could cause such a positive change in the direction of our friendship with the United States of America and I hope this lasts,” added the Prime Minister.
Janša meanwhile tweeted in summer, after the US decided to withdraw its troops from Germany to deploy them in other European countries, that US soldiers would be welcome in Slovenia. At the time the Defence Ministry said there were no talks on the matter under way.
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