ZAGREB, March 6, 2018 – The Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Marija Pejčinović Burić said in Mostar, southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, on Monday, ahead of a trilateral meeting of the presidents of Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, that the European path led to reconciliation of the countries in the region after the wars of the 1990s.
“We think the European path is the right path, the path of reconciliation, of building a new common and good future for all three countries. The idea of this meeting is to see how we can work for the benefit of all three countries,” Pejčinović Burić said after meeting with senior officials of the University of Mostar.
Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and the members of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency, Dragan Čović, Bakir Izetbegović and Mladen Ivanić, are meeting in Mostar on Tuesday. They will later be joined by Pejčinović Burić, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić and Bosnia and Herzegovina Foreign Minister Igor Crnadak.
Pejčinović Burić said that the European path enabled all the countries to make progress and develop good-neighbourly relations. She said Croatia was ready to support Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia on their path to EU membership and share its experience from the process. “It is a transformative process for all of us who have been through the war,” she added.
Pejčinović Burić said they would not be discussing accusations by the Serbian foreign minister against Croatia for allegedly downplaying the crimes committed by the Nazi-allied Ustasha regime in Croatia during World War II or the recent exhibition on the Jasenovac concentration camp at the UN, organised by Serbia.
Speaking of her meeting with the head of the University of Mostar, Zoran Tomić, Pejčinović Burić said that this university was the pivotal institution of the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina. “We believe that the survival of the Croats in these parts depends on possibilities in education, notably in higher education. We think this university should be strengthened as the only university outside Croatia that teaches in Croatian language,” the Croatian foreign minister said.
Pejčinović Burić said that the Croatian government had financed the construction of the university campus with 183 million kuna. She added that last year Croatia allocated five million kuna to the University, two million kuna to the Croatian National Theatre and 40 million kuna to the University Hospital in Mostar.
“Support to the Croats is at the same time support to Bosnia and Herzegovina because it is not just Croats who are treated in the hospital or who study at the university,” Pejčinović Burić said.
