PORTO, Dec 6 (Hina) - The Prevlaka issue will be the topic of the day because negotiations on the issue can indeed be considered as concluded, so the conference in Porto will be remembered particularly by a meeting of the Croatian and
Yugoslav foreign ministers, Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula said ahead of the tenth ministerial conference of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Portugal on Friday.
PORTO, Dec 6 (Hina) - The Prevlaka issue will be the topic of the day
because negotiations on the issue can indeed be considered as
concluded, so the conference in Porto will be remembered
particularly by a meeting of the Croatian and Yugoslav foreign
ministers, Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula said ahead of
the tenth ministerial conference of the Organisation for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Portugal on Friday. #L#
Apart from participating in the conference, the Croatian Foreign
Minister will hold several bilateral talks, of which the most
important are those with his Yugoslav counterpart Goran
Svilanovic. The two ministers are expected to issue a joint
statement confirming that all disputable issues regarding the
Prevlaka peninsula have been solved and that a protocol on a
temporary regime is ready for signing.
"In the joint statement, we should explain, primarily to the UN,
that we have adjusted all disputable issues and that the protocol on
a temporary regime along the southern border is practically ready
to be signed," Picula said.
According to Picula, Portugal is an ideal place for such a statement
because the current mandate of the UN Mission of Observers on
Prevlaka expires on December 15 "and vacuum which would occur had we
failed to reach an agreement prior to their departure should most
definitely be avoided".
He said the protocol should be signed early next week, most probably
on Tuesday, December 10. The place of the signing is yet to be agreed
on, even though Croatia has already suggested that this be in
Zagreb.
The temporary regime protocol regulates the situation in the
territory where Croatia and Montenegro, namely Yugoslavia, share a
border. It also regulates an entire series of systems important for
the functioning of a state, it contributes to the normalisation of
relations among citizens living in the region. The protocol
regulates demilitarisation and determines the jurisdiction at sea
and land, Picula said.
"In any case, we will leave negotiations on the state border for
some other times", Picula said.
The Croatian Foreign Minister will open the first plenary session
with his speech.
"I will express Croatia's clear orientation towards Euro-Atlantic
associations and point to insufficiencies Croatia is aware of,"
Picula said ahead of the opening of the 10th OSCE ministerial
meeting.
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