Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa accused the UN of double standards on Gaza and Ukraine and revealed President Trump promised to visit the first lady's homeland.
Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa used the opening week of the United Nations General Assembly to deliver a blunt verdict on the world body: its priorities are badly out of balance.
Speaking at the annual gathering in New York, Jansa accused the UN of applying double standards to global conflicts. In his telling, the hall's fixation on Gaza has crowded out Russia's war in Ukraine, the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, and a string of other crises that draw far less diplomatic oxygen.
He also carried home a headline-grabbing diplomatic prize. Jansa said he invited President Donald Trump to visit Slovenia -- the homeland of first lady Melania Trump -- and got a positive answer. "He promised he'll come," Jansa said.
"We have to get rid of double standards," Jansa said, calling on the UN to apply its diplomatic and security tools evenly instead of pouring attention, money and energy into a single conflict while neglecting the rest.
What struck him most, he said, was how completely Gaza dominated the speeches that opened this year's General Assembly. Ukraine -- a war unfolding on Europe's doorstep, much closer to Slovenia's own borders -- drew comparatively little of the same intensity from the podium.
For Slovenia and its neighbors, Jansa said, Russia's invasion is not an abstraction to be filed away between sessions. It is an immediate security threat, and Moscow has given no clear indication it is prepared to negotiate an end to the fighting.
That imbalance was visible all week in the hall, where Erdogan's Gaza-centered UN address credited Trump for the ceasefire while keeping Israel squarely in the crosshairs. Jansa's complaint is that such moments define the entire agenda while other conflicts go unmentioned.
Jansa pointed to the persecution of Christians in Nigeria as another emergency that has failed to command the same diplomatic energy. Different countries face different security and humanitarian challenges, he argued, and a body founded to prevent war should not allow its attention to be consumed by one region.
He said he intends to press that argument in his own address to the General Assembly on Thursday, positioning Slovenia as an unlikely but outspoken voice in a debate usually dominated by the largest powers.
The message also lands as a rebuke to European capitals that, in his view, have failed to connect the dots between Iran, Russia and the conflicts they fuel across the Middle East and Ukraine.
Jansa's criticism of the UN's Gaza-centric agenda arrives alongside a deliberate shift in Slovenia's own foreign policy.
Under the previous government of Prime Minister Robert Golob, Slovenia recognized Palestinian statehood in June 2024 and imposed an arms embargo on Israel in July 2025. That government defended the measures as necessary to protect Palestinian civilians and uphold international law.
Since returning to power, Jansa has moved in the opposite direction, strengthening Slovenia's ties with Israel. Earlier this month, Israel opened its first resident embassy in the country, and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar traveled to Ljubljana for talks aimed at expanding political and economic cooperation.
The two governments also signed a cooperation program covering education, science, culture, youth and sports through 2030. Jansa framed the change as a return to traditionally good relations between the two countries rather than a dramatic diplomatic realignment.
Jansa has supported Iran's opposition for decades and argues that lasting peace in the Middle East will remain out of reach without political change in Tehran.
He accused several European governments of applying inconsistent standards, backing Ukraine while taking positions on Iran that ignore Tehran's deepening partnership with Moscow. Ireland and Spain drew his criticism, as did Slovenia's own previous leadership before this year's change in government.
He also suggested that some European leaders have leaned on the Palestinian cause to pull public attention away from domestic economic and political troubles, particularly with elections on the horizon.
For a country of roughly two million people, it is an unusually assertive set of positions -- and a sign that smaller European states are increasingly willing to break with the consensus of Brussels and the UN Secretariat.
Jansa's trip to New York was also about warming Slovenia's relationship with Washington, a bond that carries an unusual personal dimension: the country's most famous American is Melania Trump.
Born in Slovenia in 1970, the first lady grew up in the town of Sevnica before moving to the United States and eventually becoming the nation's second foreign-born first lady.
Jansa praised her work on initiatives for children, describing her White House role as a source of pride for many Slovenians. His wife met the first lady on Tuesday, and Jansa spoke briefly with Trump during the visit -- a conversation that produced the invitation.
Whether the trip materializes remains to be seen, but the promise alone gives Slovenia something few small nations secure during the General Assembly: a direct line to the Oval Office and a president willing to say yes.
Jansa's address on Thursday will be the next test of whether his call for even-handed UN attention finds any echo in the hall. For now, he has done what few leaders manage during a week of scripted diplomacy -- made a small country's argument impossible to ignore.
Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa accused the UN of double standards on Gaza and Ukraine and revealed President Trump promised to visit the first lady's homeland.
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