(Hina) - Croatia doesn't want to be a guardian of the European Union's external borders because it is in its strategic interest that the border of stability and prosperity should expand to include Southeast Europe, notably Bosnia and Herzegovina, new foreign minister Davor Ivo Stier said in Zagreb on Thursday after formally assuming his duties from Miro Kovač.
"Throughout its history Croatia has been a guardian of borders. It is not in our interest to be a guardian of the EU's external border, but we want the border of stability and prosperity to expand. That is in Croatia's national interest," Stier said.
"It is in our interest that the entire area of Southeast Europe is Europeanised, and Croatia, as a member of the EU and NATO, is certainly a factor of stability and Europeanisation of this entire region," he told the press while speaking of Croatia's foreign policy priorities.
Stier said that Bosnia and Herzegovina's EU path was a priority, adding that Croatia would continue to insist on the equality of all three constituent ethnic groups and of all citizens in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Stier said that Croatia would insist that all countries aspiring to join the EU, including Serbia, should meet the necessary criteria and that Croatia would help them on that path. He added that Croatia would promote a climate of cooperation in seeking solutions to all outstanding issues.
Speaking of the recent parliamentary elections, Stier said that Croatian citizens had shown great maturity at a time of growing radicalism and populism in the West.
"They rejected any radicalism and chose a clearly pro-European, pro-Euro-Atlantic government. That gives us strength in our foreign-policy positioning in Southeast Europe, in Central Europe, and within the EU and NATO," Stier concluded.