ZAGREB, June 26 (Hina) - If in the past ten years it has been making efforts to show what it is not and what it does not want to be, Croatia now has to show what it is and what it wants to be like, and this is where the role of
diplomacy is very important, Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula said in Zagreb on Tuesday on the occasion of Croatian Diplomacy Day. Following a series of achievements on the international scene since the start of last year, Croatia faces a challenge of normalising the situation in the country and building a democratic society in line with European standards. "Better internal functioning of the state is the most important task because neither the EU nor NATO wants to integrate unstable countries," Picula said in his speech on the occasion of the 10th Croatian Diplomacy Day, which gathered numerous members of the diplomatic corps and figures from Croatia's academic community. Picula recalled the most import
ZAGREB, June 26 (Hina) - If in the past ten years it has been making
efforts to show what it is not and what it does not want to be,
Croatia now has to show what it is and what it wants to be like, and
this is where the role of diplomacy is very important, Croatian
Foreign Minister Tonino Picula said in Zagreb on Tuesday on the
occasion of Croatian Diplomacy Day.
Following a series of achievements on the international scene since
the start of last year, Croatia faces a challenge of normalising the
situation in the country and building a democratic society in line
with European standards.
"Better internal functioning of the state is the most important
task because neither the EU nor NATO wants to integrate unstable
countries," Picula said in his speech on the occasion of the 10th
Croatian Diplomacy Day, which gathered numerous members of the
diplomatic corps and figures from Croatia's academic community.
Picula recalled the most important achievements of Croatia's
foreign policy in the past year and a half, particularly the
initialling of a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA)
with the European Union and admission to NATO's Partnership for
Peace programme and the Vilnius group, which consists of countries-
candidates for full NATO membership.
The final deadline the SAA sets for the full adjustment of the
Croatian society to the standards of democratic Europe - 2006 - may
really seem too ambitious in the current difficult economic and
other circumstances, Picula said.
Guests at today's ceremony were also addressed by President Stjepan
Mesic's advisor on foreign policy Tomislav Jakic, who said that
Croatia's diplomacy had a hard time ever since the establishment of
the Croatian state because it had to "correct the grave mistakes of
the state policy."
Parliament Deputy Speaker and chairman of the Committee on Foreign
Affairs, Zdravko Tomac, said today's Croatia was a modern
democratic state which everybody wanted to cooperate with. It is
Croatia's diplomacy, "which we are all proud of", that should be
given credit for this, he said.
Although the Croatian state is only ten years old, its diplomacy is
so good it seems the state is much older, Tomac said adding the
country's diplomacy would even be better thanks to a diplomatic
academy.
(hina) sb rml