Croatia's Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Gordan Grlić Radman said on Thursday that he was surprised by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić's statement in which he called out Croatian media for gloating over the protests in Belgrade, saying that "that is an unnecessary conspiracy theory."
"That statement is truly odd (...) I think that it is an unnecessary conspiracy theory," Grlić Radman said in a comment on Vučić's statement.
Vučić was asked on Wednesday to comment on reactions in Croatia to anti-government protests in Belgrade to which he said that "Croatians are afraid of a strong Serbia," and that he had seen "all sorts of ugly information (in Croatian media) and this is evidently a coordinated attack on our country."
Grlić Radman recalled that yesterday he had said that he supported "order, peace and stability," and that "protests are a democratic right of citizens but they have to be peaceful."
He added that Croatia was occupied taking care of internal issues following Sunday's parliamentary election.
"We are in a post-election situation of forming a new government and inaugurating parliament so that we can work in the interest of Croatia and its citizens," said Grlić Radman.
When it comes to relations between the two countries, he said, it would be worth keeping in mind that for them to be good, Serbia needs to fulfill its international obligations such as reciprocity regarding the representation of the Croat minority in all government bodies and shedding light on the fate of 1,871 persons gone missing in the Homeland War.
"Serbia is a signatory to an inter-state agreement on reciprocity regarding the Serb minority in Croatia and the Croat minority in Serbia," Grlić Radman said and warned that Serbia is not respecting all the provisions of that agreement.
"That would be a good path to advance bilateral relations but that is also an obligation on Serbia's European journey," he added.
Text: Hina