Ivo Vajgl visits Germany

Ljubljana, 10 October - The press representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ivo Vajgl, made a statement for STA after the return of dr. Dimitrij Rupel from Germany. He said that the Minister met with the President of the Hessen region, Mr. Hans Eichel. The meeting was attended also by the Minister of Information Services, Mr. Jelko Kacin. dr. Rupel and the President Mr. Eichel discussed the practical questions of the economic cooperation between Slovenia and the Hessen region. This was the first meeting on the governmental level. Until now Slovenia cooperated on the governmental level only with the German regions of Bavaria, Bremmen and Baden - Wuerttenberg. The other regions, including Hessen, were excluded from the cooperation due to an agreement with the former Yugoslavia. Though the Hessen region was high on the Slovenian priority list, since most of our business representatives are situated in this region and towns like Marburg and Wiesbaden have close knit ties with Maribor and Ljubljana, there were no direct ties with Slovenia Until now. The Minister Rupel informed Mr. Eichel personally on the Slovenian independence strategy, slovenian views on the Yugoslav crisis and the war in Croatia as well as on the talks he had with the Chancellor Kohl and the German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Genscher. dr. Dimitrij Rupel reiterated the well known slovenian view that there is no civil war in Yugoslavia. The warring factions are two separate states with Serbia misusing all the federal institutions and especially the Yugoslav Army. The two statesmen expressed their wish to further the economic as well as all other cooperations. The President Eichel uttered his support for the Slovenian independence and accepted the invitation of dr. Rupel in the name of the slovenian Prime Minister, Mr. Lojze Peterle, to visit Slovenia.