HIGH CROATIAN STATE OFFICIALS DELIVER SPEECHES AT PRESIDENTIAL COU

COU $ NCIL SESSION ZAGREB, 26 May (Hina) - Croatia's integration into Europe and Western democracy remained the main goal of its long-term external policy. As far as the Council of Europe was concerned, Croatia was ready to accept all high European standards, but it did not think that additional obligations for its admission to the oldest European integration were necessary', Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic told yesterday's session of the Presidential Council. 'Croatia will meet the commitments it has taken on, but it will also defend its dignity', Minister Granic said in his introductory speech entitled 'Main Guidelines of the International Position of Independent and Sovereign Croatian State'. 'Our greatest concern is the lack of a clear Euro-American stance towards the peace process in South-East Europe', Granic said. Croatia was caught in the crossfire and attempts had been made to push it into some new Balkan associations. 'I want to say it clearly: Yugoslavia - nevermore', Granic said. Strategic aims of Croatian external policy were its integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions, the completion of the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danubian area, the continuation of normalisation of relations with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the strengthening of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the development of good relations with other neighbours. Speaking about the topic 'International Political Integrations and Croatia', Croatian Deputy Foreign Minister Ivan Simonovic said that Croatia was determined to oppose any tendency aimed at linking its admission to European integrations with the regional package of countries of South-East Europe. The difficulties Croatia met regarding its admission to the Council of Europe were only of tactical nature, he said, adding that Croatia's real strategic aim and challenge was its admission to the European Union. In new circumstances, Croatia had to be ready for new reactions of the Standing Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, which was a body which had already given a green light to Croatia to enter the Council of Europe, and which would meet in Salonika next week. Simonovic then spoke about relations between Croatia and the United Nations and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). 'The future of Croatia's relations with international institutions is based on economic issues and respect for human and minority rights', Simonovic said. Croatian Premier Zlatko Matesa spoke about the topic 'Croatia in European and International Integrations'. On one side, there was a tendency among members of those economic integrations, to break barriers opposing their integration, and on the other side, there was a tendency to aggravate access to those countries which were not their members, Matesa said. Croatia had to have a clear plan of dynamics towards the European Union, starting from its future agreement on cooperation and trade to its full membership in the European Union. Matesa also warned that the excellent political relations between Croatia and the United States were not accompanied by appropriate trade relations, which was why the strengthening of economic cooperation between the two states was one of Croatia's priorities. As regards trade relations between Croatia and Bosnia- Herzegovina, Matesa said that Croatia was interested in being present on the Bosnian market as well as in the existence of a mini customs union. The President's Chief-Of-Staff Ivo Sanader said that Croatia wanted its relations to the European Union to be determined by Central European and not South-Eastern European countries. 'Croatia will oppose any attempt aimed at pushing it out from Central Europe and forcing it into the Balkans, which is contrary to the tradition and location of its history, civilisation and culture', Sanader said. In his speech entitled 'Croatia and Balkan Integrations', Sanader gave a survey of attempts aimed at creating Balkan integrations into which Croatia was being forced. As an example for this statement, Sanader mentioned the Foundation for Peace and Solution of Crises, which was organised in France with the aim to gather the countries of former Yugoslavia, as well as Bulgaria and Albania, and prepare their peace-time economic cooperation. He also mentioned a proposal for global solution for former Yugoslavia, which is supported by some Harvard professors. The proposal on Euroslavia was presented by a group of intellectuals gathered around the Italian magazine 'Limes'. At the end of his report, Sanader mentioned the global regional approach of the European Union as one of the main problems Croatia's foreign policy is being face with currently. According to that approach, the regions of South-East Europe would include Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Albania, Romania and Bulgaria. 'Needless to say that Croatia, as the most developed country in the region, would suffer the greatest damage because of such a policy', Sanader said. Croatian Deputy Defence Minister, Lieutenant General Kresimir Cosic spoke about 'Croatia's Military and Security Position in Political and Security Integrations'. Cosic said that Croatia's international as well as military and security position in the future would be more and more connected with various international military-political and security integration systems and processes. The military and security position of Croatia since the first democratic elections to the liberation operations 'Flash' and 'Storm' was based exclusively on the strength of the Croatian army. Recent experience showed that without a strong Croatian army there would be no Croatia, Cosic stressed. Croatia was a small country on the crossroads of different interest zones of different cultures and civilisations and it wanted to enter international military and security alliances and form firm connections with those alliances, for example with Western European countries and the United Sates, because it was in those connections that Croatia saw its way towards progress but also towards its distancing from the Balkans, Cosic said. (hina) rm jn 261215 MET may 96