President Borut Pahor expects to meet his Croatian counterpart soon after a courtesy meeting following Sunday's inauguration of Kolinda Grabar Kitarović as Croatia's new president.
He plans to invite the president for them to resume the Brdo Process and expects they will work together well to tackle remaining bilateral issues.
Commenting on Grabar Kitarović's inauguration address in a statement for Slovenian media after the ceremony, Pahor said that the most important thing for Slovenia was that she underscored the importance of good relations with the neighbouring countries.
"It's important that she underlined joint efforts for peace and security in the region. In that context I will invite her that we continue the Brdo initiative together," Pahor said after a lunch hosted by Grabar Kitarović for the leaders of foreign delegations and before meeting her for a brief courtesy meeting.
His reference was to the process first launched in January 2010 by him when he served as Slovenia's prime minister and his then Croatian counterpart Jadranka Kosor as an informal form of cooperation to forge stronger ties in the region and help the remaining countries join the EU and NATO.
Asked about the Croatian president's reference in her inauguration address to Croatia's issues in the relationship with Serbia and its interests in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Pahor said that this made continuing the Brdo Process the more important.
Expressing the hope that Grabar Kitarović would be in favour of resuming the initiative, Pahor said: "I expect that we'll agree on a working meeting soon to discuss the practicalities, if Grabar Kitarović consents to resuming the Brdo Process."
In the opposite case, Pahor said that the process would have to continue without Croatia or Serbia, which he said would mean the initiative losing its current strength.
Pahor would like for the cooperation between Slovenia and Croatia to continue at an "exemplary" level so that issues are resolved in the spirit of trust, honesty and to the mutual benefit, and that as members of the EU and NATO the two nations help other countries in the region in enlargement processes.
"No issue between Slovenia and Croatia is such that it could return them to the time when their relations were bad. I have good reasons to look forward to cooperation between the countries and nations with optimism in the future."
After Grabar Kitarović had recently announced that she would offer a proposal for the resolution of the issue of Yugoslav-era savings deposits in a few months, Pahor said it was important that both countries were willing to resolve the dispute peacefully without encouraging emotional tensions.
"Slovenia has a political will and a vision that it needs partners for. I hope I will find Grabar Kitarović to be such a partner," Pahor said.
Source: The Slovenia Times
