ZAGREB, April 12 (Hina) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov on Friday presided at bilateral talks between Croatian and Macedonian delegations, a President's office statement said.
ZAGREB, April 12 (Hina) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and
Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov on Friday presided at bilateral
talks between Croatian and Macedonian delegations, a President's
office statement said. #L#
Following is the full text of the statement:
"Welcoming President Gligorov, President Tudjman said that
today was a day of historical importance, because this was the
first official meeting between the presidents of the independent
states of Croatia and Macedonia. He added that ties between the two
nations went back to ancient times.
"'Taking part in the anti-fascist movement, both nations
succeeded in establishing their sovereignity within Yugoslavia.
Seeing that its disintegration was imminent, and desiring it to be
a peaceful process, President Gligorov and I proposed a
confederation', Tudjman said, adding that Croatia had been forced
to fight the Serbian aggression to gain its independence.
"Croatia has agreed to a peaceful reintegration of the
occupied territory in eastern Slavonia, because it received
guarantees, especially from the U.S., that the reintegration would
be implemented successfully, President Tudjman said.
"As regards the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Tudjman said
that Croatia strongly supported the implementation of the Dayton
Peace Agreements. The Bosnian Federation was a guarantee for the
security of Bosnian Croats and Moslems, and its ties to Croatia
constituted a guarantee that the Federation would join the
European integration processes.
"The relations with the states formed after the desintegration
of the former Yugoslavia must develop on the basis of mutual
recognition and normalisation, but any ideas of establishing some
sort of Balkan or South European association must be rejected,
Tudjman said.
"Macedonian President Gligorov said that this meeting was
important for the two states and nations which, now they were both
independent and sovereign, had great opportunities for overall
collaboration.
"Macedonia had been symphatetic to the liberation of the
occupied areas, and was hopeful that a peaceful reintegration
process would be successfully implemented."
(hina) ha
122041 MET apr 96