Addressing the diplomats as the three-day event got under way yesterday, PM Cerar noted that the previous government officially supported Türk's candidacy for the post at its session in January 2014.

This decision of the Alenka Bratušek government is still in force and the current government will continue with this support, the prime minister said.

Stressing Türk is "a strong and credible candidate, with realistic chances to succeed", Cerar asked the attending diplomats "to provide our candidate with all the necessary diplomatic and logistic support in his bid [for the office]".

President Borut Pahor also endorsed the candidacy of his predecessor. "If Slovenia decides for such candidacies, it must be persistent, it must present arguments and stand for its success," he said as he addressed the event on Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec told the STA on the margins of the meeting that his ministry had been supporting the candidacy ever since it was announced by Türk in December 2013, also working on its promotion as part of the diplomatic network.

"As foreign minister, especially in bilateral meetings with my counterparts, I always mention that Slovenia has a proper candidate as part of the East European group, which is in line to provide the UN secretary general," said Erjavec, who was foreign minister also in the previous government.

The second five-year term of incumbent UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon runs out on 31 December 2016. Secretaries general are not term-limited, but nobody has served more than two terms before.

Türk already worked in the UN as the Slovenian Permanent Representative between 1992 and 2000 and as assistant secretary general between 2000 and 2005 to Kofi Annan. He was elected the president of Slovenia in 2007, serving a five-year term.