President Milanović on Monday called on Croat politicians in BiH to state whether they supported his efforts to make Finland and Sweden’s NATO accession conditional on amendment of the BiH election law to the benefit of local Croats. Milanović’s statement was described by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković as irresponsible exhibitionism that would not help the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“I appreciate what he (Milanović) has been doing recently. I’m glad that he has shown special interest in the status of the Croat people in BiH and has thus strongly mobilised also Croatian citizens as well as Croat representatives in BiH. I expect all current initiatives, including diplomatic ones regarding Finland and Sweden, to be agreed on among Croatian foreign policy actors. Then they will have a chance to be successful and I am confident that today the most important thing is to preserve the unity within the Croat people in BiH,” said Čović.
According to Čović, it would be bad if Croats from BiH and from Croatia became divided over the issue of international integration.
“I was clearly told that I should contribute fully so that we do not become divided in any way over issues such as whether someone will enter into some association tomorrow, be that a security or some other association. We simply have to preserve our unity and must not be divided on any issue,” Čović said.
He added that he communicates regularly with President Milanović and Prime Minister Plenković and that he expects leading Croatian officials to reach an agreement on ways to improve the status of the BiH Croats.
