Mr. Tonino Picula, the Croatian Foreign Minister, received to a farewell visit Mr. Kishore Mandhyan

On 27 June 2003, Mr. Tonino Picula, the Croatian Foreign Minister, received to a farewell visit Mr. Kishore Mandhyan, Head of the United Nations Liaison Office (UNLO) from India.

In cordial and friendly talks, Minister Picula and Mr. Mandhyan exchanged commendations and lessons of the long term cooperation between Croatia and the UN, and recalled the visit of Mr. Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General to Zagreb. Minister Picula emphasised that this visit was a confirmation of Croatia’s high degree of maturity that it now enjoys among the UN countries. Croatia had to demonstrate its capability to establish a stable democracy, which cannot be achieved overnight, and the UN played an important role in Croatia.

Minister Picula noted that after successful termination of the UN mandate at Prevlaka, a global crisis in Irak took place. Croatia was very interested in the important role of the UN and the Council of Security in defending security and peace in the world, which is part of the Croatian politics today and will be in the future as well. With a view to giving Croatia’s contribution, Minister Picula announced the candidacy of the Republic of Croatia as a non-permanent member of the Council of Security for 2008-2009.

Mr. Mandhyan recalled his long-term experience gained in Sarajevo, Mostar, Zagreb, Pakrac, Vukovar and Skopje. He commended the successful path of Croatia towards democracy. He emphasised the importance of unity and homogeneity between all political and democratic forces in building peace as the most important factors for a peace mission to achieve success, such as the UNTAES in Croatia, which, according to his words, is one of the most successful peace missions in the history of the UN.

Press releases