PULA PULA, April 7 (Hina) - A meeting of senior officials of the foreign ministries of Croatia, Slovenia and Italy who discussed cooperation at the Adriatic, ended in the Croatian northern coastal city of Pula on Wednesday
evening.
PULA, April 7 (Hina) - A meeting of senior officials of the foreign
ministries of Croatia, Slovenia and Italy who discussed cooperation at
the Adriatic, ended in the Croatian northern coastal city of Pula on
Wednesday evening.#L#
The meeting, held behind the closed doors, was the continuation of
trilateral talks, previously held in Trieste, Italy, and Portoroz,
Slovenia, on cooperation, environmental protection and sustainable
fisheries as well as on economic management of maritime resources.
Upon the end of today's meeting, Hido Biscevic, State Secretary in the
Croatian Foreign Ministry, told reporters that the Croatian side again
tried by arguments to convince Slovenia and Italy that the
introduction of a joint trilateral ecological and fishing zone at the
northern Adriatic would open more issues rather than solving the
current problems.
Biscevic quoted Prime Minister Ivo Sanader as saying that the Croatian
parliament decided to proclaim an ecological and fishing zone at the
Adriatic in compliance with the expansion of national jurisdiction,
and consequently Croatia would advocate its national interests.
Zagreb, however, will at the same time hold dialogue with other
countries on their interests, Biscevic added.
The participants in the Pula meeting agreed that in the coming months
the talks on the matter would be led within dialogue with the European
Commission through models "of creating conditions for better
trilateral talks through improvement of bilateral relations," Biscevic
said.
He added that he was aware that these were complex talks given that
Slovenia and Italy continued to express concern over the Sabor's
proclamation of the ecological and fishing zone.
He went on to say that in Pula the Croatian delegation had tired to
convince Slovene and Italian diplomats that the Sabor made the
decision on the matter being motivated by a sincere concern about the
real dangers to which the Adriatic Sea, being without control and
jurisdiction, is exposed.
Slovenia's delegation in Pula was led by State Secretary (in the
foreign ministry), Andrej Logar, and the Italian delegation by
Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, Roberto Antonione.
(Hina) ms