ZAGREB, 11 April (Hina) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman on Thursday received Sir Dudley Smith, president of the Western European Union Parliamentary Assembly and member of the British delegation in the Council of Europe
Parliamentary Assembly, a statement from the President's Office said.
ZAGREB, 11 April (Hina) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman on
Thursday received Sir Dudley Smith, president of the Western
European Union Parliamentary Assembly and member of the British
delegation in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, a
statement from the President's Office said. #L#
President Tudjman said that in historical and geo-political
terms, Croatia belonged to the Central European and Mediterranean
region and by no means to the Balkans.
After World War I, Croatia entered the South Slav association
in order to defend itself from Italian, German and Hungarian
imperialist claims, but differences in civilisation and culture
were so big that they led to the great-Serbian aggression and a
horrible war, President Tudjman said.
After its liberation Croatia wanted to enter European
integration processes as soon as possible. It wanted to join NATO
and Partnership for Peace program. This was of great importance not
only to Croatia but also to Europe, President Tudjman said.
Croatia favoured the normalisation of relations between all
states that originated from former Yugoslavia, but it refused to be
treated as part of the Balkans, President Tudjman said.
Expressing his understanding for Croatia, Sir Dudley Smith
said that Croatia needed Europe, but that Europe needed Croatia as
well.
The talks between President Tudjman and Sir Dudley Smith were
attended by President's Chief-Of-Staff Ivo Sanader, the head of the
Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee Zarko Domljan and President's
aide for foreign affairs, Dubravka Pleic-Markovic.
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