Sanader, Jansa agree that commissions for border issues should step up their activities

Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and his Slovene counterpart Janez Jansa agreed over the telephone on Tuesday morning that two commissions established by Croatia and Slovenia after a meeting of the two prime ministers in Bled last August should step up their activities and hold their first meeting as soon as possible, the Croatian government said in a brief statement.

The prime ministers believe that any activity that could hamper the commissions' work should be avoided, the government statement said.

At their meeting held on 26 August 2007 in Bled, Slovenia, Sanader and Jansa agreed that border disputes between Croatia and Slovenia should be settled by the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ). They agreed that the court's rulings should be binding both on Croatia and Slovenia, while other outstanding issues should be resolved bilaterally through dialogue at the ministerial level.

The two prime ministers also agreed at the time that an arbitration framework would be prepared by two state commissions and that the framework would have to be endorsed by the two parliaments before it was sent to the ICJ.

They also agreed to reactivate a joint diplomatic commission which in the 1990s had already identified disputed land border points, and to make a list of disputed land points. Since the two countries do not agree on the sea border either, it was agreed that those issues should be dealt with by the ICJ.



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