Europe Has to Assume Greater Responsibility for Its Security, Croatian FM Says

“Because of all that as well as the fact that we no longer live in stable post-Cold War times, the EU can no longer rely only on soft security instruments, but must develop capabilities for independent crisis management, including military ones,” he said in a Conference on the Future of Europe debate in Pula.

Still, he added, Croatia “clearly sees NATO as the main guarantor of Euro-Atlantic security and its NATO membership as the main protection from possible external aggression.”

“We advocate further deepening the partnership with NATO, which remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, and strengthening cooperation with the most important partner, the United States, in a score of topics,” said Grlić Radman.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias also took part in the debate, saying that strengthening Europe’s defense policy is complementary to NATO.

“Can we rely on NATO? For Greece, and we have a real security problem, there is no dilemma. The European defense initiative is of use for NATO and Euro-Atlantic cooperation,” he said, adding that those are not two “antagonistic” concepts.

The most prominent advocate of strengthening European defense cooperation and creating a European army is French President Emmanuel Macron.

“We must be realistic. If we want the EU as a global actor, we must start at home and in our neighborhood. We need more unity and more solidarity. We must take others’ security problems very seriously,” Dendias said.

Grlić Radman reiterated Croatia’s stand on the need to change Bosnia and Herzegovina’s electoral law before this year’s vote in order to prevent the more numerous Bosniaks from electing Croat representatives in the House of Peoples and the Croat member of the Presidency.

“BiH is at a crossroads. An agreement on changes to the electoral law and restricted constitutional changes would improve the political atmosphere in the country and replace the existing mistrust between the key political parties, with a view to achieving a more stable and more prosperous BiH,” he said.

“The absence of an agreement would push Bosnia deeper into a political crisis with fatal consequences,” he said, reiterating that Croatia pushes for BiH as one state of three constituent peoples and two entities.

For more, check out our dedicated politics section.

 

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