CROATIA GUARANTEED SLOVENIA ACCESS TO OPEN SEA IN 1991 AGREEMENT

LJUBLJANA, Sept 3 (Hina) - Janez Jansa, president of Slovenia's leading opposition party, the Social Democrats, and former defence minister, has said that Slovenia has access to international waters not just on the basis of a 2001 agreement initialled by Drnovsek and Racan, but also on the basis of a 1991 agreement between Kucan and Tudjman. #L# "Our border is not defined only by the Drnovsek-Racan agreement, which has not been ratified, but also by an agreement ratified by the parliaments of the two countries on 25 June 1991. By that agreement Slovenia and Croatia constitutionally recognised their borders as they were on that day. At that time Slovenia was still part of the (former Yugoslavia); it had its own sea and direct access to international waters, and Croatia guaranteed that in its constitution," the Slovene STA news agency quoted Jansa as telling state-run television on Tuesday night. "Should Zagreb adopt a document that would nullify the 1991 decision, Slovenia would be fully entitled to demand a new border that would coincide with the (post-WW2) border of Zone B (the Free Territory of Trieste) because in that case it would no longer be bound by the agreement (of 25 June 1991) and the whole matter would have to be addressed all over again," Jansa said. Jansa urged the Slovene government to ask Croatia if the 1991 agreement was still valid. (hina) vm