The topic of the meeting with his Croatian counterpart Plenković will be the border arbitration dispute and tense relations between the two countries.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenković participated yesterday at the opening of the general debate at the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly. While in New York. He also met with Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar with whom he agreed on a meeting in Zagreb next Wednesday, reports Jutarnji List on September 20, 2017.
“Slovenian Prime Minister has agreed to visit Zagreb on 27 September. We will talk about the border and other open issues,” Plenković wrote on Twitter.
Slovenian Prime Minister Cerar confirmed on Wednesday that he would meet next week with Plenković in Zagreb and added that he insisted that the main topic of the discussions had to be the implementation of the disputed arbitrary decision on the border between the two countries. “We have agreed on a meeting on the 27th of this month in Zagreb where we will continue the discussion on the border between Slovenia and Croatia. I will represent the view that this should be the main topic of the discussion, and I want to talk about implementation,” said Cerar to the Slovenian news agency STA. A new bilateral agreement on the border issue is unacceptable for Slovenia, confirmed the Slovenian Prime Minister.
Commenting on Donald Trump’s speech at the UN, Cerar highlighted the part in which the US president spoke about the importance of “the rule of law” in the arbitration dispute between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea. Cerar said that was important, referring to the arbitration decision which Croatia refuses to accept.
While the Croatian side rejects the arbitrators’ decision because of the contamination of the process and demands that the border issue should be resolved bilaterally, Slovenia claims that the verdict has become a part of European law and that Croatia as an EU member must respect it.
Cerar noted that he used bilateral meetings with chiefs of delegations and diplomats in New York to present and explain the Slovenian position on arbitration with Croatia.
Croatian Prime Minister Plenković reiterated yesterday in New York that Croatia wanted to resolve the border dispute with Slovenia on a bilateral basis, and that there was no pressure from the European Union to accept the decision which it did not recognise.
“There are very clear positions of Croatia and Slovenia. I have repeatedly said that the issue of borders is a matter to be resolved bilaterally, on the basis of international law. Croatia had opted for the arbitration in good faith, but it was compromised on the Slovenian side. The decision of the Croatian Parliament to withdraw from the proceedings is clear,” said Plenković, adding that it was evident from his consultations with parliamentary parties that all political actors in Croatia wanted to address border issues on land and sea with a bilateral agreement.
“We will be going step by step in this direction, regardless of any other positions. This is a priority issue for Croatia and Slovenia as two mature, responsible and friendly countries,” concluded Plenković.
Translated from Jutarnji List.
