LJUBLJANA, Aug 31 (Hina) - According to the results of an opinion poll published on Saturday by Ljubljana's "Delo" paper, most Slovenes believe that relations with Croatia are poor and that the problem of demarcation in Piran Bay
should be settled through international arbitration.
LJUBLJANA, Aug 31 (Hina) - According to the results of an opinion
poll published on Saturday by Ljubljana's "Delo" paper, most
Slovenes believe that relations with Croatia are poor and that the
problem of demarcation in Piran Bay should be settled through
international arbitration. #L#
Asked about the quality of relations with Croatia, 50 percent of
respondents said they were bad, 17 percent said they were very bad,
while 25 percent believed they were good.
As much as 70 percent of respondents believe that if no agreement is
reached on the sea border in Piran Bay, the two sides should request
international arbitration, while every tenth respondent opposes
this option.
A total of 62.5 percent of respondents believe that Slovenia is
right in the dispute in Piran Bay, 36 percent believe both sides are
responsible for incidents, while two thirds believe that the Janez
Drnovsek government did not take a sufficiently firm stand with
regard to the worsened relations.
Relations with Croatia are one of the main topics, along with the
dilemma of whether Slovenia should sign a bilateral agreement with
the USA on the non-extradition of US citizens to the International
Criminal Court (ICC) and the sale of large state companies to
foreigners, that are being discussed ahead of a presidential
election to be held in two and a half months.
The incumbent premier and presidential candidate, Janez Drnovsek,
said in an interview with Radio Fantasy he would try to calm down the
situation in talks with his Croatian counterpart Ivica Racan next
week, but repeated that the problem was caused by the Croatian side,
which had failed to implement the initialled border agreement.
"Negative emotions between Slovenes and Croats do not lead anywhere
because we are and will stay neighbours and the current
deterioration of the situation and the search for new contentious
issues lead nowhere. We saw previously in the Balkans where this
leads to. The Slovene policy is mature enough to find a way to calm
down the situation and continue with a more constructive dialogue,"
Drnovsek said.
(hina) rml