Mesic said that it is a routine exercise and that it is not be a case of deployment of Croatian troops outside Croatia for combat purposes. He noted that Croatia could only benefit from the exercise.
The exercise was planned, and the whole thing should have been better arranged in order to avoid any misunderstanding in Parliament, the President said.
A dispute has arisen over the unit being sent to the US after a group of members of the Croatian Parliament claimed that Croatian Army units cannot leave the territory of Croatia without Parliament's approval.