BRIJUNI, Sept 1 (Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula said on Monday Slovenia's withdrawal of its ambassador to Croatia restricted possibilities to discuss serious issues within a diplomatic framework.
BRIJUNI, Sept 1 (Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula
said on Monday Slovenia's withdrawal of its ambassador to Croatia
restricted possibilities to discuss serious issues within a
diplomatic framework. #L#
Picula told reporters on the Brijuni Isles he was truly sorry about
Ljubljana's latest move.
Speaking of the intention to proclaim an economic zone in the
Adriatic, Picula said Croatia would act in line with domestic as
well as international legislation and call on all countries and
international organisations with a direct interest in this area to
cooperate.
"My statement in Slobodna Dalmacija doesn't contain new radical
assessments. These issues are familiar to both the Croatian and the
Slovene public, like the evaluation that the initialled state
border agreement from 2001 is legally ineffective," the minister
said, adding that the claims made by his Slovene counterpart
Dimitrij Rupel earlier today could easily be refuted with facts.
"Croatia's position stays the same. We think a good portion of our
credibility lies in building good neighbourly relations with every
country while seeing to it that our policy defends national
interests as well," Picula said.
He went on to say that Croatia remained open for dialogue but that
dialogue was hardly feasible when moves such as withdrawing the
ambassador were made.
Picula said Croatia had intended to call a meeting on September 16
to discuss the economic zone but that Slovenia had indicated on a
number of occasions that it wanted to hold the meeting at an
inappropriately low level.
Commenting on Slovene parliamentarian Jelko Kacin's claims that
his statements contrasted with those jointly given by Slovene
President Janez Drnovsek and Croatia's Stjepan Mesic, Picula said
ha had talked about this with President Mesic earlier in the day.
"President Mesic himself was surprised that after the talks with
Drnovsek and the agreement that this topic was not to be used to
complicate Croatia-Slovenia relations, Slovenia's foreign
minister made a series of assessments that are difficult to accept
and unpleasantly surprised us," said Picula.
(hina) ha sb