Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader made an official visit to Serbia and Montenegro today, sending a strong signal that the two countries are steadily improving bilateral relations and are ready to work together towards regional stability.
Croatian PM Makes Historic Visit to Belgrade
Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader made an official visit to Serbia and Montenegro today, sending a strong signal that the two countries are steadily improving bilateral relations and are ready to work together towards regional stability.
PM Sanader is the first Croatian premier to pay an official visit to Belgrade since Croatia gained independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1992. Sanader was greeted with a military guard of honor by Svetozar Marovic, president of Serbia and Montenegro. He also held talks with his counterpart, Vojislav Kustonica.
The Sanader-Marovic talks focused on bilateral relations as well as on the two countries’ prospects of joining Euro-Atlantic institutions. They issued a joint statement that read, “The Republic of Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro are interested in solving all remaining outstanding issues, in establishing a good neighborly partnership on the foundation of equality, reciprocity, trust and the joint vision of a European future for our part of Europe, and in the completion of the process of normalization in all segments of bilateral cooperation.”
Croatia’s PM told reporters that the future of the two countries is in a united Europe. The project of uniting Europe cannot be completed unless all countries in the region enter the EU, Sanader said, adding that the speed of reforms and strengthening of democracy, as well as the rule of law and the respect for human and minorities’ rights, would define the pace of each country’s admission into the European bloc. The Croatian PM reiterated that Zagreb expected entry negotiations with the EU to start by March 2005 at the latest.
Sanader and Marovic also hailed a bilateral agreement on the protection of minorities signed earlier in the day by Croatian Justice Minister Vesna Škare Ozbolt and Rasim Ljajic, Minister of Human and Minority Rights for Serbia and Montenegro.
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