OHRID TO PARTICIPATE IN UNESCO FORUM OHRID, Aug 28 (Hina) - Upon his arrival in the Macedonian lakeside resort of Ohrid on Thursday afternoon, Croatia's President Stjepan Mesic said he hoped that his visit to Belgrade, scheduled for
early September, would have positive impact, as both Zagreb and Belgrade were interested in the settlement of open issues as soon as possible.
OHRID, Aug 28 (Hina) - Upon his arrival in the Macedonian lakeside
resort of Ohrid on Thursday afternoon, Croatia's President Stjepan
Mesic said he hoped that his visit to Belgrade, scheduled for early
September, would have positive impact, as both Zagreb and Belgrade
were interested in the settlement of open issues as soon as
possible. #L#
Mesic arrived in Macedonia to take part in a two-day UNESCO forum on
dialogue of civilisations, which has pooled his six counterparts:
Albania's Presidents, Alfred Mosiu, Bosnia-Herzegovina's
Presidency member, Borislav Paravac, Bulgaria's President, Georgi
Parvanov, Hungary's President, Ferenc Madl, Macedonia's
President, Boris Trajkovski, Serbia-Montenegro's Svetozar
Marovic, and Slovenia's Janez Drnovsek. The event, hosted by
Macedonian head of state Trajkovski and UNESCO director Koichiro
Matsuura, will be attended also by experts in science, culture and
education, religious dignitaries and civil society
representatives.
Mesic said the Ohrid forum would also serve as an occasion for his
introductory talks with Marovic.
"I hope that our meeting in Belgrade will have positive impact, as
we are going to talk about some open issues which both countries
would like to solve as soon as possible," Mesic said.
This refers to the return of refugees, the restitution of their
property, as well as restitution of companies' property, he added.
Asked to comment on open issues with other countries-successors to
the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), Mesic
said that problems should be solved at bilateral levels. He
recalled that the Badinter Commission had recognised boundary-
lines between former republics in the then SFRY as state borders of
those countries, but it had not carried out the demarcation of
border on the sea.
"In case we cannot muster enough strength to agree with each other,
we must ask for arbitration, but the issue must be solved," the
Croatian head of state said.
Upon his arrival in Ohrid, Mesic also held talks with his host,
Macedonian President Trajkovski, on possibilities for improvement
of economic bilateral cooperation.
(hina) ms