ZAGREB, Aug 25 (Hina) - Croatian Deputy Foreign Minister Ivan Simonovic on Monday met Slovene Ambassador Peter Bekes to inform him that Croatia would not respond to Slovenia's latest note, despite serious dissonance with some of its
parts, thus expressing its wish to cease the war of notes and find solutions to contentious issues through dialogue, the foreign ministry reported.
ZAGREB, Aug 25 (Hina) - Croatian Deputy Foreign Minister Ivan
Simonovic on Monday met Slovene Ambassador Peter Bekes to inform
him that Croatia would not respond to Slovenia's latest note,
despite serious dissonance with some of its parts, thus expressing
its wish to cease the war of notes and find solutions to contentious
issues through dialogue, the foreign ministry reported. #L#
The ministry applauds Slovenia's readiness to accept September 16
as the date of a bilateral meeting and urges Slovenia to, apart from
the two ministries' legal experts, include fishing and
environmental protection experts in the talks.
Simonovic said statements from the Slovene note and those by
Slovene officials that Croatia needed this country's consent to
proclaim an economic zone in the Adriatic, the prerequisite being
the ratification of an initialled border agreement between the two
countries, lacked legal grounds.
Due to its geographical position, Slovenia does not have access to
the open sea and the initialled agreement was never signed, let
alone ratified, so it could not have generated any legal effects,
the ministry said in the statement.
On the other hand, being a country with an unfavourable
geographical position Slovenia has a legitimate interest in
fishing surplus fish in Croatia's exclusive economic zone, if it is
proclaimed, as well as in participating in the ecological
protection of the Adriatic.
As a good neighbour, Croatia is prepared to hold talks with Slovenia
about these issues, the ministry said.
(hina) lml