Pusić: the year of continued dialogue between Belgrade and Zagreb

First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Vesna Pusić is convinced that this will be the year of continued dialogue between Belgrade and Zagreb that will solve some of the outstanding issues, and announces projects that will help the citizens on both sides of the borderrdquo.

This year in the region I see as a year of projects that will help the citizens on both sides of the border. Projects that will facilitate their everyday life and improve the capability to draw up and realize projects for tapping into the EU funds. I believe that continued dialogue will resolve some of the outstanding issues, as no dialogue means no solution,rdquo Pusić said in the interview for Tanjug.

She is convinced that Serbia and Croatia are mature enoughrdquo to resolve these issues themselves. In that regard, the past year was a year of preparations and defining of topics. The goal for all of us is to live in successful countries surrounded by other successful countries. That is the only real guarantee of stability and security,rdquo Pusić said.

Analysing the relations between Croatia and Serbia the previous year, Pusić said it was true that there had been no bigrdquo or interestingrdquo meetings in media terms, but that the two countriesrsquo cooperation had not ceased. The highest profile meeting was the one between former Serbian president Boris Tadić and Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaccedili at the Croatia Summit in Dubrovnik. But after the elections in Croatia and later in Serbia, more important for our relations was the cooperation between the ministries of foreign affairs and cooperation on other, working levels of communication. We simply had to wait for the new government and ministries to form,rdquo Pusić explained.

She said that the previous year was also marked by the final verdict of the Hague Tribunal in the cases of generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač.

The verdicts sparked strong and in some cases excessive reactions by the Serbian side. But given the level of politization, strong reactions were to be expected, regardless of the nature of the verdicts,rdquo Pusić said, pointing out that Croatiarsquos position has always been and still is that the verdicts determine that the two retired generals are innocent and that there was no joint criminal venture.rdquo

The verdicts, however, do not absolve those who have committed crimes, regardless of the nationalities of the perpetrator or the victim. Croatia has and will continue to persecute crimes, as we believe that respecting legal institutions is the right way,rdquo Pusić was adamant.

She said the previous year, the first for Croatiarsquos new coalition government and herself as the foreign minister and, during the last month or so, as the first deputy prime minister, had in fact been quite good from the regional perspective. Herersquos why. The Croatians voted lsquoyesrsquo at the EU membership referendum, Serbia got the candidate status, and Montenegro opened negotiations. In a sea of bad news, especially in terms of economy, political instability of our wider neighbourhood, the Southern Mediterranean, this regionrsquos further progress towards European integration should be applauded. We should work on advancing each of the countries individually and continue the joint task of stabilizing the region,rdquo Pusić said.

She recalled that in January 2012 Croatia held the historic referendum and that despite daily bad news and protests in Greece 67% of the citizens voted for Croatiarsquos EU membership. However, this is the first enlargement lsquowith a missionrsquo. That mission consists of strengthening the European integration of the whole region. Montenegro has begun the negotiations and Serbia was granted candidate status, which Croatia and I personally have been strongly advocating,rdquo Pusić stressed.

She believes that Croatia, nor any other country in the region for that matter, cannot be completely stable and prosperous if its surroundings are not the same way. The EU membership is not a goal in and of itself. The negotiations were a crucial period for us, as we used it to build state institutions and lay the foundations for our future development, and that is the most important result of our 12-year long European integration process. We have the know-how and the lsquofinal productrsquo that can be utilized in the region, given our social, economic and linguistic similarities,rdquo Pusić concluded.