SLOVENE MINISTER: RELATIONS WITH CROATIA COMPLEX, BUT NOT HOSTILE

LJUBLJANA, Sept 10 (Hina) - Relations between Slovenia and Croatia are complex, but not hostile, Slovene Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel has said in an interview with the Ljubljana-based Dnevnik daily published on Wednesday. #L# Rupel said that the present relations between Slovenia and Croatia were the result of the different positions of the two countries in the international community and Euro-Atlantic integration processes. He said that if the issue of the border between Slovenia and Croatia should come up for international arbitration, it would apply not only to the sea border but also to the entire land border. "Slovenia has great possibilities. We are active in the EU and can discuss all economic and political issues with the 24 European countries on an equal footing," Rupel said, adding that he feared that in its bilateral relations with Croatia, Slovenia was "the victim of its own success". Rupel repeated his view that Slovenia might show more reserve and less enthusiasm in supporting Croatia on its path to the European Union and NATO. He added that Croatia, being part of the Western Balkans, was a "black hole that emerged between Slovenia and Greece". The Slovene official said his fellow citizens were hurt by statements by Croatian politicians who said that Slovenia had no access to the open sea and who denied it the status of a maritime country. Rupel would not specify when the Slovene Ambassador to Croatia, Peter Bekes, would return to Zagreb from consultations in Ljubljana, but said that he would return to Croatia because he had not been recalled. Speaking of a meeting of representatives of the foreign ministries of the two countries, scheduled to take place in Ljubljana on September 16, Rupel said that a recognition by Zagreb that Slovenia had access to the open sea was a precondition for the start of political dialogue on the issue. (hina) vm