ZAGREB, July 19, 2019 – Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency member Željko Komšić has accused Croatia of refusing to resolve outstanding issues between the two countries, the Sarajevo-based Oslobodjenje daily said on Friday.
Komšić, who will assume the rotating chairmanship of the Presidency on Saturday, said in an interview with the daily that there is a long list interview of outstanding issues and that, aside from Croatia’s unwillingness to resolve them, the HDZ BiH party’s members in the BiH Council of Ministers are obstructing work on those issues.
He highlighted the border issue, BiH companies’ assets in Croatia, and plans to build a nuclear waste dump in Croatia near the BiH border.
“There’s no interest on Croatia’s part to resolve them,” he was quoted as saying, adding that “we have the desire and the good will” to resolve them. He also said BiH was “very fair and concrete” in dealing with the assets of Croatian companies and private citizens in BiH, “without the condition of reciprocity.”
Komšić said Croatia is treating the assets of BiH companies and persons as its own and is leasing them.
He also commented on the latest dispute in the BiH Presidency, in which incumbent chair Milorad Dodik put a veto on a decision to stop the construction of the Pelješac bridge until the two countries resolve their border issue. Komšić says Dodik “promised Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović” that he would do so.
He dismissed Dodik’s claims that stopping the construction would cause problems with the construction of a bridge across the Sava river and bring BiH into conflict with the EU.
More news about relations between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina can be found in the Politics section.
