LJUBLJANA, Aug 24 (Hina) - Arbitration in the Slovene-Croatian border dispute would be useless because it is non-binding and there are no guarantees that the two sides would accept the decision of a third party, since they cannot
reach agreement on their own, the head of the Slovene parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, Jelko Kacin, told the Maribor paper "Vecer" on Saturday.
LJUBLJANA, Aug 24 (Hina) - Arbitration in the Slovene-Croatian
border dispute would be useless because it is non-binding and there
are no guarantees that the two sides would accept the decision of a
third party, since they cannot reach agreement on their own, the
head of the Slovene parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, Jelko
Kacin, told the Maribor paper "Vecer" on Saturday. #L#
"Slovenia's agreeing to arbitration would not contribute much to
solving the problem. The two countries must reach agreement on the
border, and if they cannot do it, it is even less possible they would
respect the decision of a third party. Arbitration is non-binding,
and we could be back to square one again, which has no sense," Kacin
said.
The Slovene official claims the proof for his claims is the failed
arbitration in the case of the Ljubljanska Banka debt to clients in
Croatia.
"The two countries agreed on arbitration in that case, but then the
Croatian side refused to submit its documents, and arbitration was
not possible," Kacin said.
"The border cannot be divided into the land and sea border, and the
border as a whole will not be determined until a border agreement is
signed. International arbitration would mean we would have to wait
a long time for the border to be established, which is not in the
interest of either state," Kacin said.
One should refrain form threatening with weapons in Piran Bay and
claims that a Croatian navy ship could enter the bay in a show of
force are made by irresponsible individuals, but they bear witness
to the fact that Croatian politicians are not rationalising the
problem, said Kacin.
(hina) rml