The Slovenian and Italian foreign ministers, Anze Logar and Luigi di Maio, on Thursday held talks on the bilateral relations and the Covid-19 pandemic and also proposed a trilateral meeting with their Croatian counterpart on plans of Rome and Zagreb to declare exclusive economic zones in the Adriatic.

“The Slovenian and Italian foreign ministers, Anze Logar and Luigi di Maio, met on Thursday to discuss exclusive economic zones that Italy and Croatia intend to declare in the Adriatic Sea. They agreed that they would hold a trilateral meeting on the topic with Croatian counterpart Goran Grlic Radman as soon as possible,” the Slovenian news agency STA said.

The Slovenian ministry said in a press release that Logar and di Maio underscored the importance of preparing such trilateral meeting at the start of 2021, which would focus on possibilities of their joint cooperation in the Adriatic region.

Slovenia points out that the three countries are connected with “a vision of the Adriatic Sea that connects people and presents a source of affluence for all.”

The two ministers agreed that the Italian side would update Slovenia about the process of declaring the EEZ in the Adriatic.

The Italian minister reassured his Slovenian counterpart that the declaration of the EEZ would be conducted in compliance with the principles of the International Law of the Sea and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and with the full participation of Slovenia and Croatia with the aim of ensuring the highest level of protection of the Adriatic Sea,, the Slovenian foreign ministry said.

On 30 November, the Italian minister visited Zagreb for talks with Grlic-Radman and on that occasion he said that that Italy had initiated the procedure for the declaration of an exclusive economic zone in the Adriatic Sea and hoped that Croatia would do the same, in which it would have Italy’s full support.

“In a European spirit, aware of the need for its protection and sustainable management, we discussed declaration of exclusive economic zones on both sides of the Adriatic,” Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Grlic Radman said after meeting with his Italian counterpart in Zagreb.