However, Foreign Minister Dačić says that Serbia is open for dialogue.
In Croatia there is rehabilitation of fascism and the Ustasha regime going on and the policy is that being a good Croat means to be against Serbia as much as possible, and that is wrong. However, Serbia is open for dialogue and reconciliation with Croatia, said Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić, reports Večernji List on December 31, 2016.
At the annual press conference, Dačić said that in 2017 he expected improvement of relations in the region, opening more than ten chapters in the accession negotiations with the European Union and the abolition of the visa regime with China. He also spoke about relations with Croatia.
“It is a lie that Croatia is not rehabilitating fascism. They have already rehabilitated Archbishop of Zagreb, Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, and they have been releasing criminals since 1990”, said Dačić, adding that the Nazi-puppet state Independent State of Croatia was the forerunner of the Republic of Croatia and of the idea of an independent Croatian state today. There are months-long discussions about whether the Ustasha slogan “For Homeland Ready” should be allowed or not, and it is a slogan which was invented “just for the purposes of the Ustasha-fascist-Nazi regime, which was Hitler’s puppet”, he said.
The doors for a dialogue with Croatia are open, said the Serbian Foreign Minister, who added that he wished for the relations in the region to be better, “which is not difficult since they are so poor now”. He also said that the reason was that “it has become a cliché that to be a good Croat means to be as much against Serbia as possible, which is a wrong policy”, said Dačić. “I am not saying this because they are Croats, but because they are fascists and criminals, just as I have always been against the rehabilitation of those who collaborated with the fascists in Serbia as well”, said Dačić.
Dačić also commented on criticism towards Belgrade for the decision to purchase MiG fighter aircraft. He said that Serbia did not violate any international obligation on arms control and that the main problem was that these were Russian-made planes. “None of this is controversial. If we had taken American planes, everything would be fine”, said Dačić, adding that “the problem is that these are MiGs produced by Russia”.
Dačić said that Serbia expected to open more than ten negotiating chapters in the accession negotiations with the EU in 2017, but added that he was not satisfied with the speed of negotiations since “excuses are constantly being found” and because the European process is connected with the dialogue between Belgrade and Kosovo and bilateral issues. “Croatia has greatly abused its EU member state position, and it has without any reason or justification repeatedly blocked opening of negotiation chapters, although the main principle is that bilateral issues should not be a problem in European negotiations”, said Dačić.
