Dr. Turk said, that the solution is authoritative and has no weak spots, which makes it implementable.

"We have a case of legal creativity which is nevertheless within the norms and conventions of the UN on international maritime law, and also follows the development of international case law," he said in an interview the newspaper Delo ran on Saturday.

Türk, who served as president in 2007-2012, also noted that "the ruling strengthens the principle of freedom of navigation, which is extremely important to the US".

Wherever you go around the world where these issues occur, you will see American arguments on the side of the freedom of navigation. "Arbitration gave the Americans a good legal argument."

Croatia's claiming that the arbitration does not exist for it is unsustainable, said Türk, who believes the ruling is an expression of dominance of the power of argument over the argument of power.

He stressed that the arbitration decision is binding. "In law, we call it res iudicata. There is no negotiating on a res iudicata. This has to be our baseline."

"We can discuss how to implement the ruling and how to avoid incidents, but it has to be clear that this is res iudicata. This will gain ground sooner or later. There is no other way," said Türk.

"Arbitration as a way of solving open issues could also be a model for the Balkans," said the former UN assistant secretary general political affairs (2000-2005).

It is moreover "very important" for Slovenia to "establish on which points the non-implementation of the agreement would represent a violation of EU law".

He said that the EU is a highly regulated system and it should be established on which points the arbitration ruling needs to be absolutely respected, and consequently take the necessary measures, "possibly also lawsuits".