LJUBLJANA, Sept 11 (Hina) - The Slovene Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Thursday in response to a recent statement by Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, who said that Croatia could claim access to Austria at Sentilj if it
followed the logic that Slovenia should be given access to the open sea in the Adriatic, because it used to have it when it was part of the former Yugoslav federation.
LJUBLJANA, Sept 11 (Hina) - The Slovene Foreign Ministry issued a
statement on Thursday in response to a recent statement by Croatian
President Stjepan Mesic, who said that Croatia could claim access
to Austria at Sentilj if it followed the logic that Slovenia should
be given access to the open sea in the Adriatic, because it used to
have it when it was part of the former Yugoslav federation. #L#
In its statement, the Slovene ministry said Croatia had never had
direct territorial contact with Austria or Italy.
"In the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY),
boundary lines on land were defined as borders between the
republics. Upon the break-up of th SFRY, they became borders
protected by international law, and this was also concluded by the
Badinter Commission. The Republic of Croatia has never had
territorial contact with either the Republic of Austria or the
Republic of Italy," the statement read.
The ministry reiterated the Slovene stand that the boundary lines
on the sea between former republics in the then SFRY had never
existed and that Slovenia had direct territorial access to the open
sea while it was a republic in the SFRY and all the time after the
federation's disintegration, and that therefore it had the same
right today.
(hina) ms