Representative of the Republic of Slovenia to the United Nations Security Council
From 1993 to 1995, he was Chargé d’Affaires at the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in the People’s Republic of China, where he was responsible for opening the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Beijing and consolidating bilateral relations between the two countries. On his return from Beijing, he was appointed Head of the Department for Non-European Countries at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until 1997.
From 1997 to 2001, he was Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Slovenia to the United Nations. During Slovenia’s first membership of the UN Security Council, from 1998 to 1999, he was Deputy Representative of the Republic of Slovenia to the UN Security Council. As State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2001 to 2004, he led the preparations for the Slovenian Chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the negotiating team for Slovenia’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), and he was a member of a wider negotiating team for Slovenia’s accession to the European Union.
In 2004, he was appointed Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia to the United States of America, a post he held until 2008. When the 9th Government of the Republic of Slovenia took office in November 2008, he was sworn in as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia.
In 2012, he joined the European External Action Service (EEAS) as EU Special Representative (EUSR) and Head of the EU Office in Kosovo. During this time, he worked on resolving the outstanding issues between Belgrade and Pristina. After the end of his mandate in Kosovo, he took over as Head of the EU Delegation in North Macedonia in 2016, a position he held until 2020. On 2 June 2022, the 15th Government of the Republic of Slovenia appointed him State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, following a proposal by the Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tanja Fajon.
On 20 July 2023, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia appointed a special mission for the UN Security Council membership and observer status headed by Ambassador Samuel Žbogar.
