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The Embassy of Slovenia in Vienna |
Contact
Address: Kolingasse 12, 1090 Vienna, Austria
Tel.: +43 1 319 11 60
E-mail: sloembassy.vienna@gov.si
https://www.gov.si/en/representations/embassy-vienna/about-the-embassy-vienna/
The Ambassador
Aleksander Geržina
Ambassador Aleksander Geržina, born on July 19, 1966, in Maribor, Slovenia, has a distinguished career in diplomacy. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Ljubljana (1991) and received a three-month scholarship from the Austrian Federal Chancellery at the University of Vienna. He furthered his training at the University of Vienna and RUSI in London (1991-1992).
Ambassador Geržina began his diplomatic career in 1992 as an Attaché in the Consular Department in Ljubljana and as a member of the Coordination Group on Bosnian Refugees. In 1993, he became a Second Secretary in the Office of the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in Ljubljana. His international experience includes serving as an Observer/Adviser with the UN Mission in Mozambique (ONUMOZ) in New York and Maputo in 1994.
From 1995 to 1996, he was a Counsellor and Deputy Head of the Cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Ljubljana. He then served as First Secretary/Counsellor at the Mission of the Republic of Slovenia to the EU, WEU, and NATO, and as an Alternate Representative to the PC OPCW in The Hague (1996-1998). From 1998 to 2000, he was the Deputy Head of Mission to NATO and WEU.
Between 2000 and 2002, Ambassador Geržina was the Minister Plenipotentiary and Director of the CFSP Unit at the MFA. He represented Slovenia to the PSC in Brussels from 2003 to 2004 and headed the OSCE Task Force for the Slovenian OSCE Presidency in 2004-2005. Following this, he served as Minister Plenipotentiary and Deputy Director for the EU at the MFA until 2006.
He was the Special Representative of the Slovenian EU Presidency for Cyprus in 2008 and the Director for Europe at the MFA from 2006 to 2009. From 2009 to 2013, he served as Ambassador of Slovenia to Austria and as Permanent Representative to the IAEA, CTBTO, and UNIDO in Vienna. In 2014-2015, he was the Director-General for European and Bilateral Issues and served as Special Coordinator for Terrorism in the MFA from September 2015 to December 2017.
From 2017 to November 2019, he was the Deputy Political Director and Deputy Director General for CFSP. From March 2020 to April 2021, he served as Ambassador and Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Ambassador Geržina is fluent in Slovenian (mother tongue), German, English, Croatian, and Serbian (C2), with proficiency in French and Italian (B2).
He is married to Ms. Gaja Peric, a Slovenian diplomat, and they have a son, Filip-Noel, born in 2005.
History
Austria recognized Slovenia's independence on 15 January 1992, and diplomatic relations were established that same day — Slovenia opened its embassy in Vienna immediately afterward, alongside a consulate general in Klagenfurt/Celovec. The relationship is described by both governments as an intensive, friendly neighborly partnership, covering cooperation in areas from police and security to regional initiatives and cultural exchange; the Slovenian Cultural and Information Centre (SKICA), established in Vienna in 2011, promotes Slovenian culture. Austria is Slovenia's largest foreign investor, and around 25,000 people commute daily from Slovenia to Austria, reflecting deep economic integration between the neighboring countries.
