He pointed to new opportunities for investment in Montenegro especially in energy and agriculture, the Foreign Ministry wrote in a press release.

Talks are also planned on potential participation of Slovenian companies in the construction of hydro-power plants, Erjavec told the STA in a phone interview.

Erjavec met with his Montenegrin counterpart Milan Roćen, who underlined Slovenia's consistent support in Montenegro's EU and NATO accession efforts.

Apart from Roćen, the Slovenian foreign minister was received by President Filip Vujanović, Prime Minister Igor Lukšić and Speaker Ranko Krivokapić.

Talks focused on Montenegro's expectations for receiving a start date for its EU accession negotiations in June.

Erjavec said that Slovenia would stay a strong supporter of Montenegro, noting that Montenegro's progress had already been acknowledged by the European Commission twice.

The European Commission proposed on 25 May that the EU membership talks with Montenegro begin in June. The decision now needs to be confirmed unanimously by member states.

The minister added that Slovenia also believed in Montenegro's progress as regards its NATO membership.

He said that could be seen from the message of the recent NATO Summit in Chicago, where the country was mentioned as the most probable candidate to be granted full membership at the next summit.

Talks also touched on the election of nationalist Tomislav Nikolič as the new president of Serbia.

Erjavec said his counterparts believe the election would not influence Serbia's interest in joining the EU. "They expect there will be no major changes with regards to Serbia," Erjavec said.