Remarks by High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini upon arrival at the 2017 Bled Strategic Forum
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I am glad to be here in Slovenia, especially at the Bled [Strategic] Forum. This is the first official visit I pay to the country. I started with a good meeting with the Foreign Minister [of Slovenia, Karl Viktor Erjavec]. I'm continuing with the meetings with the President [Borut Pahor], with the Prime Minister [Miro Cerar], Minister of Defence [Andreja Katič] , Minister of Interior [Vesna Györkös Žnidar], with the Parliament tomorrow in Ljubljana. And it's also a great opportunity to be here at the forum in a moment where many of our important interlocutors are here: the Turkish Foreign Minister [Mevlüt] Çavuşoğlu], but also all our friends from the Western Balkans. And this is probably the issue that I have been discussing the most with our Slovenian interlocutors: how we can, together, make the entire region of the Western Balkans advance significantly on the way towards the European Union - all the six Western Balkan partners we have - and I will discuss this further today.
And let me also tell you that later this week, we will have a meeting of all the Foreign Ministers of the European Union Member States in Tallinn [informal meeting of foreign affairs ministers (Gymnich)] where at the top of our agenda there will be the situation in the Korean Peninsula and here, in Bled, you have two important players from this file, on the non-nuclear proliferation file - [Yukiya] Amano who is leading the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] and Dr [Lassina] Zerbo who is leading the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) are both here. I think it is a very strategic choice from those who have organised the forum.
I will meet both – Mr Amano and Dr Zerbo – today to discuss how the European Union and the international organisations can help strengthening the non-proliferation nuclear agenda. You know that for us this is an essential part of our work, it is a crucial security matter and I will address this issue as a core element in my address to the forum in a few hours.
Q: What does an unsolved arbitration question between Slovenia and Croatia mean for the region?
It is very important, I think, for two EU Member States, for the European Union and for the region, as such, that the ruling of the arbitration court is respected and implemented fully. And I think that the European Commission made this very clear.
Q: If it is not, what does it mean to the region?
It is important to stick to the rules, implement the decisions taken and show to the rest of the region that rules are to be respected.
Q: Should the membership talks with Turkey continue or should they end?
We are continuing to talk with Turkey. We had our last political dialogue [EU-Turkey High Level Political Dialogue] just a month and a half ago, in Brussels, with my counterparts, Foreign Minister [Mevlüt] Çavuşoğlu and EU Minister [and Chief Negotiator] Ömer Çelik. Good talks. We are not always agreeing on everything. There are some issues - especially human rights, fundamental freedoms, the situation of journalists - that are taking our positions very much apart, but talks continue.
First of all, because Turkey is a partner in the region on many different files and secondly, because it is still a candidate country. So we will continue the talks. It will be up to the internal discussions we will have and most of all the discussions we will have together with them to define the future of our relations.
Link to the video: http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/player.cfm?ref=I142988