LJUBLJANA, Nov 5 (Hina) - The state border is the most important bilateral issue in relations with Croatia, and the consolidation of political circumstances in the neighbouring country is necessary for resolving the issue, Slovene
Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek told Slovene news agency STA on Tuesday.
LJUBLJANA, Nov 5 (Hina) - The state border is the most important
bilateral issue in relations with Croatia, and the consolidation of
political circumstances in the neighbouring country is necessary
for resolving the issue, Slovene Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek told
Slovene news agency STA on Tuesday. #L#
Drnovsek stands best chances at Slovenia's presidential election,
scheduled for Sunday. As the head of the greatest parliamentary
party, he was appointed Prime Minister in 1992.
Slovene journalists say that open issues with Croatia are one of his
rare failures in foreign policy, the main objective of which is
joining the European Union and NATO.
Commenting on a border agreement initialled last year, towards
which the Croatian side had expressed reservation, and which
Croatian Prime Minister had abandoned, Drnovsek said this was a
great success and a step forward in talks which would result in
Slovenia's gaining access to open sea.
Drnovsek said the Croatian Premier was accused of allowing that the
agreement was too suitable for Slovenia. "However, the
international community, particularly the European Union hailed
the agreement," he added.
He made clear that his government was still counting on a
possibility for the Croatian side to accept the agreement in the
present form. He positively assessed the fishing regime which
stopped incidents in Piran Bay.
"A final solution to the border issue depends on when the Croatian
politics would consolidate to the extent which would be sufficient
for the ratification of the border agreement," Drnovsek said.
Commenting on the remaining open issue, Drnovsek said it was
possible that an agreement on the Krsko nuclear power plant becomes
affective after the Slovene Constitutional Court deblocked the
issue. He, however, reiterated the standpoints on the issue of
debts of the former Ljubljanska Bank Zagreb.
Drnovsek said this was a complex problem of the successor countries
to the former Yugoslavia which was being solved with the mediation
of the Bank for International Settlements in Basel.
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