The border dispute continues.
The decision of the arbitration tribunal on the border between Slovenia and Croatia, in part related to the delimitation at sea, should be implemented immediately, said Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec at the press conference after his meeting with Denmark’s Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen, reports Index.hr on August 29, 2017.
Erjavec said that immediately after the arbitration decision was announced two months, he took a position that the maritime border should be implemented without delay, because it was clearly defined. “Since the Slovenian authorities have not done so, the precious time has been lost,” Erjavec said.
The entry of Croatian fishing and police vessels into the waters of the Bay of Savudrija which, according to the arbitration tribunal, mostly belong to Slovenia, is a provocative move, according to Erjavec, who added that another such move was a message by Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković to the Croatian fishermen in Savudrija that they should behave at sea as they did before, since the arbitration decision was not binding for Croatia.
In this way, the Croatian Prime Minister has called on Croatian fishermen to “violate the arbitration verdict and Slovenian sovereignty” and demonstrated that Croatia did not intend to implement the decision through a dialogue with Slovenia, Erjavec said.
Asked to comment on the Slovenian-Croatian arbitration dispute, which was one of the topics of his talks with Erjavec, the Danish minister said his country sees this issue as a bilateral one, but also hopes that both states will find a solution to the dispute in the future. Also, Denmark, according to Samuelsen, insists on the rule of law and respect for international treaties by all members of the international community.
Slovenian President Borut Pahor also spoke about the differences between the two countries regarding the implementation of the arbitration decision. There are indications that the relations between Croatia and Slovenia and their border could be one of the main themes of the campaign ahead of Slovenian presidential elections scheduled for 22 October.
During a news conference, Pahor warned about possible “unwise” moves to execute the arbitration decision by “force” and without a dialogue with Croatia, because that could lead to unfavourable international reactions, he added. Slovenia expects that the verdict will be fully applied. In order to do so, there is a need for some skill and a lot of understanding from the international community. “Let us not lose this support because of speedy and unwise steps,” said Pahor, presenting his candidacy for the second presidential term.
Translated from Index.hr.
