UK FM makes fresh gaffe, calls Slovenia ‘Soviet vassal state’

British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt, known for his unforgettable gaffe last year in China and a series of other blunders, has drawn fresh controversy by saying during an official visit to Slovenia that the country was once a Soviet Union vassal state.

During the visit on Saturday, Hunt and the British embassy in Ljubljana made gaffes that were nothing short of "insults" to the hosting country.

In a news conference with his Slovenian counterpart Miro Cerar, Hunt incorrectly said that Slovenia was once a vassal state to the former Soviet Union.

The comments came as Slovenia was a wealthy country in the former Yugoslavia which actively opposed what it called the Soviet hegemony. In fact, Yugoslavia was a founding member of the Non-Aligned movement and stayed outside the iron curtain of the Cold War between Moscow and the West.

“And I’m really happy to be here, because as a fellow European country the UK is very proud of the transformation there has been in Slovenia over the last 30 years,” said Hunt, adding, “A really remarkable transformation from a Soviet vassal state to a modern European democracy, a member of the EU, a member of Nato...”

The gaffe sparked furious reaction from Slovenian politicians, including former speaker of Slovenia’s national assembly Milan Brglez who criticized Hunt and said people in the meeting should have corrected him for the insult on their country.

“We have never been ‘the vassal state of the Soviet Union’,” he wrote on Facebook, adding, “At a minimum what I expect from my representatives is that they will react immediately when someone insults the state and its citizens.”

Hunt’s mistake came after Britain’s embassy in Ljubljana also said that the top UK diplomat was in the country to meet Karl Erjavec, Slovenia’s former foreign minister who left his role last year.

SS