Minister Grlić Radman: Croatia unreservedly supports BiH’s stability and integrity

Croatia unreservedly supports the stability and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a country of equal constituent peoples and wants to help it get the EU candidate status as soon as possible

Croatia unreservedly supports the stability and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a country of equal constituent peoples and wants to help it get the EU candidate status as soon as possible, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Gordan Grlić Radman said on Wednesday.

Ahead of his two-day official visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Grlić Radman told Sarajevo daily “Dnevni Avaz” that BiH and Croatia were friends and neighbours bound to each other, and that bilateral relations with BiH were extremely important to Croatia.

“We unreservedly support the stability and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a country whose constituent peoples and all citizens are equal. In other words, we support the constitutional foundations of BiH, and as for the county’s continued progress towards Euro-Atlantic integration, it has no greater advocate than Croatia,” said Grlić Radman.

He recalled the non-paper that Croatia on behalf of six EU member states had submitted to the Foreign Affairs Council as basis for a discussion on the Western Balkans. The document outlines a series of main challenges – political, economic and demographic, including amendments to BiH’s election law, in order to resolve the issue before the 2022 general election.

That issue, the minister added, is extremely important as resolving it means strengthening mutual trust in BiH and will facilitate the forming of government after the election.

Grlić Radman said that the two countries could cooperate better in tackling illegal migration by boosting border control capacities, in which the EU’s help would be of great use.

“We call for setting up new migrant centres along the entry points to BiH, and not close to Croatian and EU border as is currently the case,” the minister said.

He confirmed that in dealing with the other bilateral issues such as the possible construction of a radioactive waste dump on Trgovinska Gora, Croatia would respect its international obligations and is offering BiH to scrap its radioactive waste at the same location if the project is realized.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Grlić Radman will meet with the highest representatives of BiH executive and legislative government as well as with head of religious communities.

 

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