WASHINGTON WASHINGTON, April 1 (Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic completed his two-day working visit to the United States on Wednesday afternoon by meeting US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The meeting was
considerably longer than had been planned and lasted more than an hour. Granic described the meeting as friendly and partner-like. The meeting focused on the situation in Croatia's neighbourhood, especially in Kosovo, but also in Montenegro, considering the increasingly difficult circumstances there and pressure by the Belgrade regime on Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, Granic said. "Croatia wants peace to be established in its neighbour-states, and the Serbian authorities have to accept the peace agreement and stop military actions in Kosovo", Granic said. The Croatian foreign minister informed Albright in detail about Croatia's stands regarding NATO's military operation in Yugoslavia and
WASHINGTON, April 1 (Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic
completed his two-day working visit to the United States on
Wednesday afternoon by meeting US Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright.
The meeting was considerably longer than had been planned and
lasted more than an hour.
Granic described the meeting as friendly and partner-like. The
meeting focused on the situation in Croatia's neighbourhood,
especially in Kosovo, but also in Montenegro, considering the
increasingly difficult circumstances there and pressure by the
Belgrade regime on Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, Granic
said.
"Croatia wants peace to be established in its neighbour-states, and
the Serbian authorities have to accept the peace agreement and stop
military actions in Kosovo", Granic said.
The Croatian foreign minister informed Albright in detail about
Croatia's stands regarding NATO's military operation in Yugoslavia
and gave an assessment of possible developments.
"I believe that this is a turning point between war and peace,
because if Belgrade does not accept the offered solution, things
will change drastically. If the ethnic cleansing campaign
continues, it will be hard to implement the conceived peace
process", he said.
According to Granic, Albright supported the initiative of Croatian
President Franjo Tudjman on a meeting of countries of the so-called
first line - countries bordering with Yugoslavia and members of the
Contact Group. It is hard to predict when such a meeting could take
place considering the stand of Russia (a Contact Group member)
towards the NATO action, Granic added.
The two officials also discussed the implementation of the Dayton
peace agreements and bilateral relations, and - which is very
important to Croatia - its admission to international economic,
political and military associations. The American side reiterated
expectations that changes to the election law and the media status,
especially as regards Croatian Radio and Television (HRT), would
remove the last obstacles to Croatia's admission to the Partnership
for Peace programme, Granic said.
Granic said he was convinced that parliamentary parties in Croatia
would in the next five to six weeks reach and agreement on a new
election law and rules on the work of the media in pre-election and
election time.
Both sides expressed a wish for talks to continue on all levels,
Granic said assessing that the relations between the US and Croatia
were on an important ascending line.
(hina) rml