OFFICIAL VISIT BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PORTUGUESE REPUBLIC DR JORGE SAMPAIO TO SLOVENIA
Joint press conference

Ljubljana, 8 April 1999


INITIAL STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT KUCAN
Dear honorable guest Mr President, ladies and gentlemen,
I would like first of all to say that I am very pleased that President Sampaio accepted our invitation, and that the result is this highest-level visit from the friendly and – for Slovenia - favourably inclined Portuguese Republic.

This visit is taking place at a very important time, not just for Slovenia and Portugal, but for Europe, and for the opportunity which it now has to finally leave the past and enter the future. This is a time when we can see the start of the intensive process of expanding European institutions, the European Union and the North Atlantic alliance. A time also of extreme sharpening of the crisis in south-eastern Europe, in the Balkans, with the developments in Serbia and Kosovo. This is a time which demands mutual understanding, solidarity and unity of European countries.

This visit is an opportunity to intensify political dialogue, as a contribution by our two countries towards the common European dialogue on the problems that are common to us at this moment and which in many respects will determine our future.

We see Portugal as a successful and influential country established in international life, and one that is currently enjoying a very intensive developmental momentum. It is a country with a long tradition, a great history and a rich cultural creativity. Portugal is a member of institutions in those Euroatlantic associations which Slovenia itself wishes to enter, for we see in them the fulfilment of our strategic interests. I am thinking of membership in the European Union and NATO, in which Portugal is a founding member. Portugal is a country which set out on its path into the European Union with approximately the same lag behind the average level of development in European Union countries as Slovenia now has. And this is important for us. For this reason it also had to undergo a similar path of transition. It has become a successful member of the European Union. And with this membership it has gained a great deal. It has preserved its identity and lost nothing. On the contrary, it has strengthened its economic power and political influence. For this reason it can, with its experiences, serve as a welcome example, in terms of both what needs to be done and what mistakes we need to avoid, since it made such mistakes itself.

President Sampaio has already stated that as part of this visit there is an economic seminar, which will be an opportunity for us to share their experiences and advice, an area where Portugal continues to remain open. Furthermore, it will be Portugal that takes over the presidency of the European Union in a year’s time. This will be a time when all 31 chapters are open for negotiation. At that time understanding, favourable inclination and readiness to offer advice will be yet more welcome to all candidates, including of course Slovenia.

Portugal has taken the enlargement of the European integration seriously. It has come to Slovenia to make certain what sort of partners it will be dealing with in the future, what their problems are and how it can help them towards successful inclusion for our mutual benefit. For this reason it is welcome, as it has always been, and we appreciate the support of Portugal in our incorporation both into the European Union and NATO. We anticipate and desire continued individual treatment in the future, with very strict criteria, and with open doors when these criteria are fulfilled.

It is understandable that the greatest part of our official and private talks has been taken up by events in Kosovo. We have been able to identify to a great extent with each other’s views. Both Portugal and Slovenia believe that the NATO action is essential in order to halt the violence. And Slovenia can speak about this from its own experience. We ourselves were faced with this violence in 1991. The action cannot be understood as some kind of backing for any particular political interest involved in the Kosovo conflict. It can be seen as the condition by which the violence and the humanitarian disaster should be halted, and the conditions created for effectively seeking a political solution, which will be based on respect of human rights and the legitimate rights of all the ethnic groups living in Kosovo, with the help of the international community and with their guarantees.

We also believe that there are very clear conditions for bringing a halt to the NATO action, which we all desire as soon as possible. These conditions are: the suspending of violence by military, police and paramilitary units in Kosovo; and secondly, the withdrawal of these units from Kosovo, and allowing the return of refugees to their homes and the work of humanitarian organisations. The conditions should also allow the placing of peace-keeping forces and the guaranteeing of autonomy, in other words that the expectations from the Rambouillet negotiations are fulfilled.

This is the solution that will bring the acute crisis under control. It would bring a kind of pacification and establish a situation of neither war nor peace. Since such crises have appeared in this acute form in Bosnia, now in Kosovo, in Albania, in Macedonia, and since they have been appearing for decades now, it is our firm belief – and I have already acquainted the President with this and I will provide further details for him in the coming days - that we will need very soon an agreement among the European countries over what the political future of the Balkans should be; a future which would respect the legal and legitimate interests of the different peoples living there; and one which through economic development and social stability will include the Balkans in European integration. It should therefore not abandon them in front of the doors of this integration, and it should set up a bridge between Europe and the countries and peoples that lie to the east of it. Here I am thinking primarily of Russia. This would be a European conference on the political future of the Balkans.

Events in Kosovo have shown that reform of the overall organisation of the United Nations is long overdue, particularly reform of the Security Council and the system of decision-making within it. This organisation – the only one we have – must preserve its authority and must be ensured the capacity to intervene effectively wherever peace and people’s security are threatened. Peace has become a universal value – and even more so with globalisation. Globalisation demands global responsibility, which begins with the responsibility of each country first of all for conditions at home, and of course for conditions that do not threaten the peace and security of neighbouring countries. The situation also makes topical the question of the system of collective security in Europe – the role and nature of NATO and its enlargement.

In this context of views on international developments there was also talk of the situation in East Timor, and on the monitoring by Slovenia and Slovenia’s diplomatic representatives, especially our representative in the Security Council, of developments there, with the aim of preventing a new crisis.

We will be continuing our talks. The programme of the visit is extensive and sufficiently thorough for our guests and friends from Portugal to feel the pulse of life in Slovenia and perhaps to allay any doubts that might still linger in Slovene political circles about whether our path to the European Union and NATO has been chosen correctly.


ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS

Question
You mentioned an international conference on the Balkans. Can you tell us any more about this?

MILAN KUCAN
There are a large number of initiatives concerning what to do in Kosovo, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in short in south-eastern Europe. The idea I am talking about is not connected to bringing the acute crisis under control, but to the elimination of the reasons which for decades, practically since the Russian-Turkish war, have been destabilising the Balkans and in turn also destabilising Europe. This would not be a conference of Balkan countries. It would be a conference of European countries on what kind of political future there should be for the Balkans. I have already spoken about the inclusion of all Balkan peoples and countries in the processes of European integration. The questions that arise are:

• do we see respect of the principles of the Helsinki document on the unalterability of European borders, with a high level of respect for human rights, with open borders and with the free flow of people, ideas, goods, services, cultural and other benefits, which then of course demand a high level of promotion, high protection, security and rights for ethnic minorities;
• do we see any other alternatives offered here,
• what are these alternatives,
• what are the consequences of these alternatives and
• what are the guarantees that security and peace in Europe will then be greater than it would be possible to ensure with the existing political map of the Balkans?