CROATIAN, AUSTRIAN AND SLOVENE FMS FACE PRESS

( Editorial: --> 2632 ) SPLIT, Mar 26 (Hina)- At their first trilateral meeting on Thursday, Foreign Ministers of Croatia, Austria and Slovenia, Mate Granic, Wolfgang Schuessel and Boris Frlec respectivelly, reached full consensus on further development of close relations between the three countries, said the three ministers at a press briefing. Granic stressed that the ministers also discussed European integration and many issues concerning the EU, considering that Austria will soon commence its term at the helm of the Union, Slovenia is starting negotiations on its membership bid and Croatia is making preliminary agreements with the Union. They also discussed infrastructure and construction of motorways, said Granic. However, those issues will be discussed in more detail at the level of the three countries' expert teams, which will pave the way for another meeting at the ministerial level. Speaking about the situation in the wider region, Granic stated he informed his colleagues about negotiations with BH and the BH Federation and told them that on Monday, Croatia and BH would sign an agreement establishing a bilateral cooperation council. The Austrian Foreign Minister said, inter alia, that commencement of trilateral cooperation indicates that all the three countries feel obliged to act in accordance with European standards, especially those stressing the importance of minorities and their protection. Speaking about Kosovo, the Austrian minister stressed the meeting reached a consensus on the need for the withdrawal of the Serbian police from Kosovo and for the respect of the Kosovo Albanians. He added that Kosovo leaders were expected not to provoke incidents that could be described as terrorism. The Slovenian Foreign Minister stressed that high quality trilateral co-operation depended on immaculate bilateral relations of all the members. As an example he mentioned trilateral cooperation between Italy, Slovenia and Hungary. He pointed out that "the closest possible cooperation between Slovenia and Croatia is in our mutual interest". (Hina) mm mr/mrb 262029 MET mar 98