‘Soviet vassal state’: Jeremy Hunt makes gaffe in Slovenia

The UK foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has incorrectly claimed Slovenia was a Soviet vassal state during his visit to Ljubljana to discuss the Brexit negotiations with his counterpart Miro Cerar.

Slovenia was in fact the wealthiest state within the former Yugoslavia, which was outside the iron curtain and formed part of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

Yugoslavia had a chequered relationship with the Soviet Union. Its leader Josip Tito defied Moscow’s hegemony and promoted what he called independent roads to socialism.

“This is my first visit to Slovenia as foreign secretary, not the first in my life, but my first in a professional capacity,” Hunt said. “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.

“A really remarkable transformation from a Soviet vassal state to a modern European democracy, a member of the EU, a member of Nato, a country with a flourishing economy, growing its tourism year in, year out, and this is really an example of Europe at its best.”

The former speaker of Slovenia’s national assembly Milan Brglez criticised Hunt for “arrogantly lecturing” his country and rebuked its own politicians for not picking up on the gaffe. He said they may not even have noticed the “insult”.

“We have never been ‘the vassal state of the Soviet Union’,” he wrote on Facebook.

“At a minimum what I expect from my representatives is that they will react immediately when someone insults the state and its citizens. And not that they are meekly silent, perhaps not even noticing the insult.”

In a related gaffe reported by local media, the UK’s Slovenian embassy tweeted that Hunt was in the country to meet Karl Erjavec, when in fact he left his role as foreign secretary last year.

Hunt is increasingly gaining a reputation for high-profile errors. He once referred to his Chinese wife as Japanese.