ZAGREB, February 13, 2018 – Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Tuesday said that other countries are expressing their preference on whether they want to and in what way be actors on the Croatian energy market, however, it is Croatia that will decided on that.
Asked to comment on a statement by US Ambassador to Croatia, Robert Kohorst, that Washington doesn’t want INA to be bought by a Russian company, Plenković said that as far he understood, they had come here with regard to the LNG terminal.
“The LNG terminal is a strategic project for us and is exceptionally important to secure and diversify gas supplies, not just for Croatia but for a large part of central and eastern Europe,” Plenković underscored after a conference on the single digital market organised by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce and the European Commission Representation in Croatia.
He reiterated that a specific law on LNG would be adopted and that that project was continuing and talks had been held in Brussels in that regard. “As far as preferences are concerned about who and in what way, wishes to be an actor on the Croatian energy market, those are the opinions of other countries however, we will decide on that,” Plenković said.
On Monday, Ambassador Kohorst said that Washington doesn’t want INA to be bought by a Russian company. It is up to Croatia to decide to whom it will sell the company, however, we think that that would be a mistake, Kohorst told reporters. In addition he described Russia as a disturbing factor in the region.
The Americans are meddling in the internal affairs of other countries, violating the principle of a free market and are conducting policies of unfair competition, Russia’s Ambassador to Croatia, Anvar Azimov said on Tuesday in response to Kohorst’s statement. “That statement is yet another example of the U.S. ‘s policies of unfair competition, meddling in the internal affairs of another country, violating the principle of a free market economy,” Azimov said.
