Expressing satisfaction with the fact that the tennis tournament in Umag had contributed to the promotion of this northern Adriatic resort also outside Europe, President Mesic told reporters that Istria had achieved much in terms of cooperation between regions and that other Croatian regions should follow its example.
He added that the closed-door meeting with the Slovak president also addressed Slovakia's experience in integration with the European Union.
Slovak President Gasparovic said he believed Croatia was the best prepared of all EU candidate countries. He added that certain problems still existed, but that he was confident Croatia would start accession talks in September.
Describing bilateral cooperation as successful, Gasparovic said Croatia and Slovakia should launch joint investments.
Asked about protests of support for General Ante Gotovina which the Association of Croatian Americans is planning to organise in front of a dozen Croatian diplomatic offices in the United States, Canada and Australia on Friday, President Mesic said that "it is easy to live in America and conduct Croatian policy".
"I would like people who want to send such messages to come to Croatia and realise that guilt must be individualised once and for all. If somebody has done a good thing while defending Croatia, they should be rewarded, but if there are doubts, they should remove them," Mesic said adding that those summonsed by the Hague tribunal must respond to the summons.
"Nobody in Croatia can be above Croatian laws, including our citizens in America," Mesic said.