Slovenian and Croatian governments hold joint session and close symbolic agreements

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A joint session of the Slovenian and Croatian governments last week in Croatia ended with the signing of several agreements. One was on avoiding double taxation - but the other dealt with the sensitive issue of their disputed border.

Since Slovenia and Croatia became independent from the former Yugoslavia - relations between the two countries have not always been easy and many times incidents along the border caused tensions. This happened because both countries demand certain areas along the border for themselves. The declaration on avoiding incidents, which was signed last week by the foreign ministers of Croatia and Slovenia, includes a commitment of both sides to respect the state of affairs on 25 June 1991, when the two countries became independent. Slovenia's Prime Minister Janez Jansa says the signing of the Slovenia-Croatia agreement on avoiding incidents means a path towards the resolution of the problems between the two countries. Jansa however admitted that this is not a binding formal agreement:

"More important than words on a sheet of paper is a kind of obligation and this statement is above all an expression of a political will, it is not a formal agreement - it is the expression of political will of both governments."

According to the Slovenian prime minister, some problems that have not been resolved in the 14 years since independence cannot be expected to go away overnight. He admitted that efforts by the previous government were heading in right direction:

"Personally, I do not think that all steps that were taken in the last 14 years in trying to find a final solution to the question of the micro location of the border between the two countries were wrong or that they all went into the wrong direction."

Political analysts say the agreement is mainly symbolic - but necessary to avoid incidents between Croatia and Slovenia and to help find a solution to the border dispute. However one question remains: will the document actually help when the two countries interpret differently the situation along the border on the day when both declared independence? The paper 'Delo' wonders whether the Croatian or Slovenian interpretation of the situation on that day in the Piran Bay is valid today, because on the day when both countries declared independence, Slovenian police were patrolling the whole bay, which is now part of the border dispute. It seems that the main intention of the meeting of both sides was to warm up bilateral relations. So without binding formal agreements there's still no end in sight to the issues preventing better relations between Slovenia and Croatia.