BOURNEMOUTH, Sept 30 (Hina) - Great Britain supports Croatia's efforts to join the European Union, but Croatia, like other former Yugoslav countries, must cooperate with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, British Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw said on Tuesday after talks with Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan.
BOURNEMOUTH, Sept 30 (Hina) - Great Britain supports Croatia's
efforts to join the European Union, but Croatia, like other former
Yugoslav countries, must cooperate with the UN war crimes tribunal
in The Hague, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Tuesday
after talks with Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan. #L#
Straw and Racan held talks on the margins of a Labour Party
conference in Bournemouth.
Straw reiterated Britain's position that Croatia should join the EU
as soon as possible and stressed that all former Yugoslav countries
had to hand over indictees to the Hague war crimes tribunal.
Racan said that "on this occasion, too, it has been stressed that
Great Britain has supported and continues to support Croatia on its
path to the EU, and we are satisfied with that support".
He added that Croatia was aware that there were still some obstacles
to Britain's support since London had still not ratified Croatia's
Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU.
Great Britain has been refusing to ratify the SAA because it is
dissatisfied with the cooperation between Zagreb and The Hague in
the case of fugitive general Ante Gotovina.
Racan is hopeful that the Gotovina case will be resolved in the near
future and that Great Britain will ratify the SAA.
"We have presented strong arguments and stated that cooperation
with the Hague tribunal is not contentious for the Croatian
government and we are ready to document that in any case," Racan
said.
At the party level, Straw spoke about the Labour Party's solidarity
with the Croatian Social Democrats.
Racan today also met Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon.
(hina) rml sb