ZAGREB, Aug 6 (Hina) - The Slovene Ambassador to Croatia, Petar Vekes, on Wednesday held talks with Croatian Assistant Foreign Minister Darko Bekic, during which he asked that the Croatian government voice its official stand regarding
stances published on the Croatian agriculture ministry's web site about the impending establishment of an economic belt in the Croatian part of the Adriatic.
ZAGREB, Aug 6 (Hina) - The Slovene Ambassador to Croatia, Petar
Vekes, on Wednesday held talks with Croatian Assistant Foreign
Minister Darko Bekic, during which he asked that the Croatian
government voice its official stand regarding stances published on
the Croatian agriculture ministry's web site about the impending
establishment of an economic belt in the Croatian part of the
Adriatic. #L#
According to the foreign ministry, Bekic told the ambassador the
Croatian side would reply to a note sent by the Slovene foreign
ministry by the end of the day. Bekic also informed Vekes about the
details of Croatia's diplomatic activities, as well as the
country's expert and technological preparations with regard to the
preservation of the number of fish, endangered by ecological
conditions, and to the ecological protection of the Adriatic.
The European Union has recently come to the conclusion that due to
the high level of pollution in the Mediterranean basin, including
the Adriatic, new modalities and instruments for the protection of
fish and the environment should urgently be found. The EU is,
therefore, planning a European conference about the issue in Venice
at the end of the year.
The Croatian foreign ministry has started consultations with Italy
as chair of the EU, and is in constant diplomatic communications
with Slovenia, as well as other countries of the Adriatic basin --
Serbia and Montenegro and Albania.
Diplomatic consultations and work of a government commission
continue, and, according to Bekic, Croatia would take into
consideration the legitimate interests of Slovenia as a
neighbouring and friendly country.
The assistant minister stressed that Croatia's Maritime Act had
long ago envisaged an economic belt, the establishment of which
parliament should declare, since this was a sovereign decision of
every coastal country, according to the international maritime
law.
At the end of the talks, Bekic and Vekes agreed that the
harmonisation of stands on an institutional form of protecting the
Adriatic should continue to remain within the frameworks of regular
diplomatic and expert communications, as well as that needless
politicisation and tension in the media and the public of both
countries, based on incomplete information, should be avoided, the
ministry said in the statement.
(hina) lml sb