Croatia's President-elect Zoran Milanovic says that Slovenia is Croatia's most natural ally and that the relations will go forward after the completion of the proceedings before the Court of Justice of the European Union.

In his comment on Friday’s judgement by the Luxembourg-based court on its non-jurisdiction over an action Slovenia brought against Croatia due to their border dispute, Milanovic said in Rijeka on Saturday, that the for the sake of its general public, the Slovenian side had had to use all means at its disposal which it found logical when it came to the border dispute and Croatia’s rejection to implement the 2017 border arbitration award.

The action brought by Slovenia did not succeed, as this matter really does not fall within the jurisdiction of the court in Luxembourg. Otherwise, it would have received similar actions from many countries, Milanovic said, noting that there are still cases that the arrangements of border delimitation and demarcation between some EU member-states are not completed yet.

“Now, when these proceedings (initiated by Slovenia) are over, I can see only good relations and even better relations with Slovenia, because it is closest to us politically,” the newly elected Croatian president said.

Asked whether the arbitration award could be the starting point for the talks, Milanovic answered in the affirmative.

Asked by the press where he would first travel abroad after taking oath as the president, Milanovic said that he still did not know.

“There may be Slovenia, Austria. Those are possible variants, however, it is not necessary to be so,” said Milanovic in Rijeka where he was attending the opening ceremonies for the inauguration of that coastal Croatian city as the European Capital of Culture in 2020.

He commended the day-long programme and ceremonies at which Rijeka took the title of one of the two European Capitals of Culture in 2020. The other city is Galway, Ireland.

In response to reporters’ questions why he had chosen Rijeka and those opening programmes for his first appearance at official events since his electoral victory, Milanovic said that he did not make a choice, explaining ” it happened to be so” due to the date of the events.