SARAJEVO, May 19 (Hina) - The first meeting of the Council for Cooperation between the Republic of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Federation of B-H is to be held in Sarajevo in June as decided during discussions on Wednesday in
the Bosnian capital led by Croatian minister responsible for relations with Bosnia-Herzegovina, Milan Kovac and the Bosnian Federation. After meeting with Alija Izetbegovic, the Bosnian Muslim member of the Presidency of B-H, Kovac told journalists that the Council would meet in the second half of next month. The topics to be discussed are still to be defined, Kovac said but these will naturally include hot issues such as trade relations between the two countries as well as dual citizenship. Commenting on discussions held during the day with the heads of the Council of Ministers of B-H, Haris Silajdzic and Neven Tomic as well as federal president Ivo Andric Luzanski a
SARAJEVO, May 19 (Hina) - The first meeting of the Council for
Cooperation between the Republic of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina
and the Federation of B-H is to be held in Sarajevo in June as
decided during discussions on Wednesday in the Bosnian capital led
by Croatian minister responsible for relations with Bosnia-
Herzegovina, Milan Kovac and the Bosnian Federation.
After meeting with Alija Izetbegovic, the Bosnian Muslim member of
the Presidency of B-H, Kovac told journalists that the Council
would meet in the second half of next month.
The topics to be discussed are still to be defined, Kovac said but
these will naturally include hot issues such as trade relations
between the two countries as well as dual citizenship.
Commenting on discussions held during the day with the heads of the
Council of Ministers of B-H, Haris Silajdzic and Neven Tomic as well
as federal president Ivo Andric Luzanski and premier Edhem
Bicakcic, Kovac emphasised that he was able to obtain a complete
picture of the circumstances in B-H and was aware of the huge effort
required to achieve proper solutions.
"Everyone agrees that it is vital to sign a trade agreement between
B-H and Croatia, satisfying economic interests for both
countries", Kovac said.
According to some indicators, the text of such an agreement could be
finalised by June preceding negotiations regarding lists of goods
and trade regimes which would be applied for individual products.
A recommendation forwarded by Croatia has still not been openly
responded to by B-H and so as Kovac puts it, time frames cannot be
defined as yet.
He added that his collocutors are aware of the need to rapidly
respond to the annexes on the Agreement for Special Relations with
the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina which the Croatian Government
sent to Sarajevo several months ago.
Minister Kovac said he was confident that these documents would be
ratified soon.
He explained that the issue of an agreement on dual citizenship was
initiated by Bosnian federal president Luzanski while Alija
Izetbegovic has agreed that this should be discussed at the
forthcoming meeting of the Council for Cooperation.
The Dayton Accords specify that Bosnia has to define such
agreements with other countries by 2003 or else its citizens will
have to revoke one or the other citizenship.
Milan Kovac also spoke with deputy high representative Jacques
Klein.
This, Kovac's first official visit to B-H is to end Thursday
following a meeting with federal officials, Dragan Covic and Ejup
Ganic and the Croat member of the Bosnian presidency Ante Jelavic.
sp