ZAGREB, Oct 9 (Hina) - Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan on Wednesday afternoon told the parliament that in relations with Slovenia he and his government would continue to advocate a peaceful method of resolving contentious issues
and current conflicts.
ZAGREB, Oct 9 (Hina) - Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan on
Wednesday afternoon told the parliament that in relations with
Slovenia he and his government would continue to advocate a
peaceful method of resolving contentious issues and current
conflicts. #L#
"Perhaps forces favouring the conflict on both sides of the border
do not agree with this but I am deeply confident that this is in
favour of democratic forces and they stand behind that line," the
Premier said during a parliament debate on a Croatian Democratic
Union (HDZ) motion to take a vote of confidence in Racan because of
the current state of relations with Slovenia and with regard to the
signing of a border agreement.
The Premier reminded that two and a half years ago his government
took over the power and came across a series of contentious issues
in relations with Slovenia of which some had been opened for more
than ten years.
"We were aware that owing to historical circumstances and political
moves in the past ten year, Slovenia was a good step ahead of Croatia
on the path to Brussels. We thought it was important to keep this in
mind and that by not resolving these matters for several more years
could threaten Croatia's national interests," Racan said.
He 'admitted' that the at one point the government had ambitions
that later proved to be unrealistic, to put all the cards on the
table, particularly the issue of the border, the Krsko nuclear
power plant, Ljubljana Bank's debts, cross-border co-operation and
traffic.
The talks, he said, arrived at the proposed border agreement which
was initialled but the parliament was yet to voice its opinion on
it.
Seeing that it was unrealistic to imagine that all contentious
issues could be resolved at once and that the Sabor's initial
opinion on the border agreement was not positive, the proposal
never made it to the next stage - it remained just a proposal without
any legal validity, Racan said.
He noted that it was clear that all problems with Slovenia could not
be resolved at once and added that they would be dealt with one by
one.
Racan pointed out the positive progress in relations with Slovenia:
cross-border co-operation and traffic, the temporary regime on the
sea until an agreement or arbitration determine the border.
(hina) sp it sb