WEBVTT

00:00.000 --> 00:05.000
I'm Janes Janče, former Prime Minister of Slovenia and current leader of the opposition.

00:05.000 --> 00:13.000
There is no secret magic formula to solve all these problems with one move.

00:13.000 --> 00:20.000
Military intervention is wrong when this is first option.

00:20.000 --> 00:27.000
Sometimes, only soft power is not enough, so it has to be supported.

00:27.000 --> 00:34.000
But soft power should always be the first approach.

00:34.000 --> 00:43.000
For the Middle East, the problem is that very often those two approaches were mixed,

00:43.000 --> 00:47.000
so the role was not right.

00:47.000 --> 00:53.000
And this is one of the reasons we are facing such confusion there.

00:53.000 --> 01:02.000
A few years ago I was still Prime Minister, I spoke at the United Nations at the annual meeting of General Assembly.

01:02.000 --> 01:18.000
At that time together with the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy we prepared special initiative to be able to react on time.

01:18.000 --> 01:29.000
to upgrade the current conventions of the United Nations to become more powerful, to become more fit for current situation.

01:29.000 --> 01:35.000
This was the time when the crisis in Syria was at the beginning.

01:35.000 --> 01:47.000
It was possible, if they would listen to us, hundreds of thousands of people live to be sold.

01:47.000 --> 02:00.000
Also to prevent important part of migratory crisis, which heated the European Union, causing all kinds of troubles, Brexit included.

02:00.000 --> 02:19.000
But during the last eight years the political class of Western civilization has proved somehow that it is not fit for the situation.

02:19.000 --> 02:34.000
There is lack of free leadership. We missed people, as they were Helmut Kohl, Konrad Adenauer, Mitterrand, Vaclav Havel,

02:34.000 --> 02:43.000
who were on stage when strategic changes happened in Europe 25 years ago.

02:43.000 --> 03:00.000
But now this generation of leaders went from stage and new generation was not capable to find right answers to these challenges.

03:00.000 --> 03:08.000
So I think that this is our first goal, or this is the first goal of the electorate in the many European countries,

03:08.000 --> 03:21.000
to face this situation, to find the solutions which are not extreme, which are based on the same values, on which European Union was created,

03:21.000 --> 03:30.000
and then to show real leadership also for the neighbourhood and to be able to really shape at least the neighbourhood,

03:30.000 --> 03:42.000
help the people reorganize the development aid, enhance communication, help to build institutions in African states.

03:42.000 --> 03:56.000
So we know the solutions. The West has enough resources. It's rich enough to do all this. The real problem is leadership.

03:56.000 --> 04:11.000
So I remember the initiative, which came from Turkey, to create non-flight zone in Syria, to protect one part of the country, to secure it and to help people at home.

04:11.000 --> 04:29.000
Exactly. This was a good initiative, I supported it, but the key international players, who should do it, took a blind eye on it and they are responsible for what followed.

04:29.000 --> 04:47.000
So Turkey was very active from the beginning. This initiative was very welcome, came on time. So it's a pity. It's a pity that lack of communication,

04:47.000 --> 04:57.000
lack of leadership, lack of seeing the forest, not only the trees from the sun capitals,

04:58.000 --> 05:12.000
caused some such tragedy, such tragedy. Even if we only come to the real communication among the leaders of the many religious on the world,

05:12.000 --> 05:21.000
standing together against such atrocities, which are happening now in parts of Middle East, this should be a very good step.