FM Kovač: Croatia to grant HRK 20 mln to Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina

(Hina) - Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miro Kovač on Thursday signed an agreement on the financing of 65 programmes and projects of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, worth HRK 20 million

(Hina) - Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miro Kovač on Thursday signed an agreement on the financing of 65 programmes and projects of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, worth HRK 20 million.

The purpose of the projects is to strengthen the Croatian element in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina itself, said Kovač at the signing ceremony at the Croatian Heritage Foundation in Zagreb.

He recalled that the Croat people had two homelands and that Bosnia and Herzegovina was the top foreign policy priority for Croatia.

Commenting on the status of the Croat people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he said that Croatia was one of the co-signatories to the Dayton peace agreement (which put an end to the war in that country in 1995) and that as such it would insist on Croats really exercising their rights as a constituent people in the country.

"We will work to arrive at a solution, together with the other two peoples, Serbs and Bosniaks, that will enable full equality for Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina," said Kovač.

The head of the State Office for Croats Abroad, Zvonko Milas, said that under the agreement signed today, cultural projects of the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina would be financed with HRK 5,345,000, educational and research projects with HRK 4,820,000 and healthcare projects with HRK 5 million.

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