The alleged reason is Croatian Prime Minister’s speech at the UN on Thursday evening.
Following Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's speech at the UN General Assembly on Thursday evening, Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar has decided to cancel his visit to Croatia which was supposed to take place on Wednesday next week, reports Večernji List on September 22, 2017.
At the United Nations, Plenković defended Croatia's decision to leave the border arbitration process with Slovenia. The news about the cancellation of the visit was first reported by the Slovenian news agency STA.
“Two days ago, we agreed to meet in Zagreb where we would discuss the border issue, which, of course, also includes the implementation of the arbitration decision,” said Cerar, adding that Plenković broke from their agreement in front of the whole world.
The Slovenian Prime Minister believes that Zagreb’s position to reject the arbitration decision is entirely unacceptable. “Therefore, my next week's visit would make no sense,” Cerar said. He added that Slovenia would continue with the preparations for the implementation and would “do everything it takes” to make Slovenia ready. “If Croatia does not cooperate, there will be problems. And no one wants that,” said Cerar, according to the Slovenian Television.
On Thursday evening, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said before the UN General Assembly that Croatia had to leave the compromised arbitration process on the border dispute with Slovenia and warned that such “non-compliance of international law” would discourage other states from settling disputes with the help of third parties.
Croatia does not accept the border arbitration decision since Slovenian officials illegally communicated with the arbitrators and inserted documents in the file on the basis of which the court at The Hague issued a verdict two months ago. On the other hand, Slovenia insists on the implementation of the decision and rejects Croatia’s attempts to settle the dispute in bilateral negotiations.
“Compromising the impartiality and independence of international arbitrations and courts, which was the case in the arbitration process between Croatia and Slovenia, makes their decisions legally ineffective, and Croatia had no choice but to withdraw from the arbitration process,” said Plenković at the UN General Assembly in New York.
Translated from Večernji List.
