Addressing a government session, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said that several years ago Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina had defined a 1,001-kilometre state border, one of the longest in Europe.
Sanader said that relations with Bosnia-Herzegovina were one of Croatia's priorities.
Croatia respects the sovereignty, integrity and independence of the neighbouring country, but it will see that the Bosnian Croat people, whose status is equal to that of the country's other two peoples, keep and improve its status, which has undergone changes in recent years, Sanader said.
There is a danger of the Bosnian Croat people losing its equality and the Croatian government will do all to prevent that, the PM said.
Bosnia-Herzegovina needs political emancipation, and the international community, which had an important role at the time when the Dayton agreement was signed to end the war, cannot stay in Bosnia forever, Sanader said, adding that political emancipation was possible only if the country's three peoples had equal rights.
Commenting on the upcoming events commemorating the 1991 fall of the eastern city of Vukovar, Sanader expressed respect for soldiers who defended Vukovar and their families, saying that Vukovar had defended itself and Croatia.
Deputy Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and several ministers will represent the government at commemorations in Vukovar on Friday. Several ministers will go to the southern village of Skabrnja to attend commemorations in tribute to the victims of the 18 November 1991 massacre committed in the village by Serb forces.