AMBASSADOR OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

Ljubljana, 14 June 2001


"I will be very proud and will see my work as a success if one day, when we will be officially bidding farewell, you will think of me as a person who had done everything that was in his power and who had also become a true friend of Slovenia and of the Slovenian people in developing friendly relations between our two countries", said Dr Ivo Viskovic, the first Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to Slovenia, on his own personal behalf upon presentation of credentials today to the President of the Republic in his official address, which he delivered in Slovenian. The Ambassador also expressed the FRY's interest in the earliest possible establishment of friendly relations with Slovenia in all areas, at the same time expressing regret that so much time had been lost in establishing such relations due to well-known circumstances.

In President Kucan's opinion the presentation of credentials by the first Yugoslav ambassador to Slovenia is a sign of the two countries starting a new period of co-operation after the erstwhile Belgrade policy had so violently severed such relations. President Kucan expressed hope that the democratic changes following parliamentary elections in the FRY, which have allowed for a re-establishment of relations, will continue since Slovenia and the present Federal Republic of Yugoslavia have many tasks awaiting completion in settling mutual relations, as well as in appeasing the situation on the territory of the once common state. Particular attention also focused on the issue of succession to the former common state as both countries are striving for all successor states to reach final agreement as soon as possible.

The collocutors also focused part of their discussion on the current situation in the Balkans, particularly Macedonia.