According to a press release from the port operator, interest from one of the port's key markets remains strong.

"We presented the opportunities our port offers as an entry point to European markets, because for years China has been establishing transport hubs in the European south. The Northern Adriatic is just one of the possibilities open to the Chinese," the port operator said in the press release.

China is one of key markets for Luka Koper, which transshipped almost a million tonnes of goods, including 100,000 containers, from the country. Two regular container lines as well as a number of feeder lines through Mediterranean ports connect Luka Koper to ports in China.

The delegation, which includes representatives of Chinese shippers Cosco and China Shipping Container Line, visited the port on the eve of an international conference on the Maritime Silk Road in Trieste.

Slovenia wants to be linked to the emerging modern-day Silk Route, Transport Minister Peter Garšperšič told a meeting of transport ministers of Central and Eastern European Countries and China in the 16+1 format in Riga on Tuesday.

"Our wish is for the transport routes of the Silk Road to be connected to the transport corridors crossing Slovenia," he said about the idea of a revival of the ancient network of trade routes connecting the West and East from China to the Mediterranean.