ZAGREB, April 10, 2019 – Slovenia’s National Security Council, which convened on Tuesday evening to discuss “the espionage affair”, called on Croatia to refrain in the future from spying activities in Slovenia.
After the three-hour meeting in Ljubljana, the council said that it had been informed of spying activities during the border arbitration process a few years ago and also condemned any attempt aimed at interfering at Slovenian media.
Lately, Slovenian media accused the Croatian Security and Intelligence Agency (SOA) of having wiretapped two Slovenian officials during a border arbitration process and claimed that Ivan Tolj, the head of the Styria publishing company in Croatia, attempted to prevent the publication of a reportage on a “spy affair” on behalf of the Croatian government.
Tuesday’s meeting of Slovenia’s National Security Council brought together Prime Minister Marjan Šarec, government ministers as well as representatives of opposition parties.
A representative of the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), Božidar Breznik, told the press after the meeting that he condemned the unjustified interference with media and added that nevertheless, the Slovenian government must accept the fact that the border arbitration belonged to the past. He said that it seemed to him that convening the council was more motivated by daily political reasons than by matters concerning national security.
The Croatian government on Tuesday resolutely rejected all allegations by Ljubljana about reported attempts by Zagreb to influence the work of Slovenian media.
The Andrej Plenković cabinet dismissed allegations that Tolj attempted to prevent the publication of a reportage on a “spy affair” as its mediator.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said that it is not his government’s policy to influence reports by Slovenian media outlets. “The Croatian government does not have the possibility nor the ambition nor is it our policy to influence any reports in Slovenian media,” he told reporters at Zagreb’s airport where he was waiting to welcome Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang.
“The arbitration procedure was irrevocably compromised because of the conduct by the Slovenian side,” Plenković said. He added that Croatia wishes “to develop good relations with Slovenia and to resolve that issue. Our policy is a policy of dialogue.”
Earlier on Tuesday, SOA dismissed reports published by the Slovenian 24ur media outlet as untrue and tendentious fabrications.
Following an inquiry from Hina, SOA says that it does not comment on media speculations and, responding to the inquiry, it stated that the articles published by 24ur were untrue and tendentious fabrications.
SOA perceives this as the continuation of a campaign by certain media outlets in Bosnia and Herzegovina which tried to discredit SOA and Croatia by disseminating false accusations about the attempted recruiting of Islamist extremists for arms smuggling through Bosnia and Herzegovina and unlawful activities which SOA allegedly conducted against neighbouring countries.
The failure of the Croatian-Slovenian border arbitration process is a judicial scandal, not an intelligence issue, and we reject this attempt to misrepresent arguments, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović’s office said on Tuesday, responding to Slovenia’s claims that Croatia wiretapped Slovenian officials in the process in order to compromise it.
“The fact is that Slovenia breached the arbitration agreement and thereby international law, which resulted in the failure of the arbitration. That is a judicial scandal, not an intelligence issue, and we reject this attempt to misrepresent arguments,” the president’s office said in response to questions from the press for a comment.
In July 2015, it was revealed that the Slovenian member of the Arbitral Tribunal, Jernej Sekolec, and Slovenia’s representative before the Tribunal, Simona Drenik, had been lobbying other arbiters to hand down a verdict in Slovenia’s favour, and this prompted Croatia’s representative in the process, Budislav Vukas, to resign with the explanation that Croatia believed that the arbitration procedure had been irreversibly compromised to such an extent that the Arbitral Tribunal was no longer capable of impartially deciding on the matter.
Later that year, the Croatian parliament unanimously decided that Croatia should walk out of international arbitration proceedings with Slovenia after secret phone conversations between Drenik and Sekolec, in which they discussed a strategy to influence judges deciding on the arbitration dispute, were leaked.
Croatia said at the time that Slovenia had irreparably compromised the arbitration proceedings as well as the subsequent ruling, and that talks should be launched to solve the border dispute bilaterally.
More news about the Croatia-Slovenia border issues can be found in the Politics section.
