Central European Summits Have Not Watered Down, Says Senior Slovene Diplomat

Brdo pri Kranju, 31 May

Friday's debate of all 16 presidents taking part in the Central European summit was extremely rich, a true dialogue in which real issues were discussed, Slovene Foreign Ministry State Secretary Ignac Golob told the press after the first day of the summit plenary session, stressing that the talks have shown that these meetings have not watered down as some may have thought.

In reality, this year's summit wraps up an era which started in 1993 in Salzburg and took shape in 1994 in the Czech town of Litomysl, explained Miha Vrhunec, foreign policy advisor to Slovene President Milan Kucan.

In 1994, the presidents set themselves two main goals, namely to support each other in accession to Euro-Atlantic institutions and to overcome the former European divisions. The first goal has already been fulfilled, as some participants have already become NATO members, with others about to join, while the process of EU accession is in its final phase, stressed Vrhunec.

The other goal set in 1994 was to build a bridge across the former European divisions, to unite Europe and make it a decisive factor in tomorrow's multilateral world. In order for that to happen the integration process must continue, said Vrhunec.

State Secretary Golob added that the plenary debate, which focused on EU and NATO enlargement, was accompanied today by numerous bilateral talks, which are very important and an addition to the already great value of this dialogue. He also expressed a hope that this meeting and last year's U.S.- Russia summit would reaffirm Slovenia's image as a place of dialogue.

STA (Slovene Press Agency)

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