LJUBLJANA, Feb 2(Hina) - Relations with Croatia was one of the topics on the agenda of the first day of a meeting of Slovene diplomats who convened in the resort of Brdo Pri Kranju, and Slovene Prime Minister Anton Rop and Foreign
Minister Dimitrij Rupel said that since the establishment of the new government in Zagreb, bilateral relations had been improving and the Euro-Atlantic prospects of the two countries offered chances for the resolution of open issues.
LJUBLJANA, Feb 2(Hina) - Relations with Croatia was one of the topics
on the agenda of the first day of a meeting of Slovene diplomats who
convened in the resort of Brdo Pri Kranju, and Slovene Prime Minister
Anton Rop and Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said that since the
establishment of the new government in Zagreb, bilateral relations had
been improving and the Euro-Atlantic prospects of the two countries
offered chances for the resolution of open issues.#L#
Addressing diplomats, Rop said Slovenia's relation with Italy were
excellent, with Austria and Hungary very good and with Croatia good.
Commenting on his first contacts with the Ivo Sanader Cabinet, he said
they had agreed on holding intensive dialogue and that Slovenia would
support Croatia's bids to enter Euro-Atlantic institutions. Regarding
the open issues, Rop said that a great amount of realism was required
and those were not easy issues for the settlement.
He reiterated that an agreement which former premiers, Janez Drnovsek
and Ivica Racan, had initialled was for Ljubljana the starting point
for negotiations on border issues and in the light of the fact that
Croatia jettisoned this deal, arbitration remained as a possibility
for the settlement of the border dispute.
According to Rop, it is important that Croatia will soon ratify an
agreement on the succession to the former Socialist Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia, All countries-successors, except Croatia, have so far
ratified the Vienna agreement on the matter.
Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel described 2003 as a very successful
year in light of Slovenia's entry to NATO and the European Union, and
voiced relative optimism about relations with Croatia.
Commenting on meetings with the new Croatian government, Rupel said
that the Sanader cabinet had ambitious objectives in foreign affairs,
which include good relations with neighbours, besides the admission to
the Euro-Atlantic institutions.
Speaking of the relations in 2003, Rupel said that the issue of the
border at sea, which he said was a problem inherited as part of
problems of the succession to the former Yugoslavia, was further
complicated by "unhappy decision of the Sabor" on the ecological and
fishing zone in the Adriatic.
"Our first aim is to prevent open issues from burdening the areas
where the two countries cooperate very well or excellently," Rupel
told diplomats.
(Hina) ms sb