ZAGREB, Nov 5 (Hina) - Croatia's President Franjo Tudjman received Italy's Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini, in Zagreb on Tuesday, the President's office said.
ZAGREB, Nov 5 (Hina) - Croatia's President Franjo Tudjman received
Italy's Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini, in Zagreb on Tuesday, the
President's office said. #L#
Italy's Dini described the bilateral cooperation as friendly
and good.
President Tudjman said that Italy and Croatia were being
oriented to each other and that they together could solve questions
of the new Europe.
Croatia wanted the backing of Italy in its bids for
reintegration into central Europe and the Mediterranean where the
country belongs, and it did not want to enter any associations in
southeastern Europe where it did not belong and from where it had
extricated itself with difficulty, Tudjman said.
The regional approach, advocated by some EU member-countries,
to create a union of southeastern Europe, to which, according to
some of those countries, Hungary and Slovenia should be added, was
not only against interests of Croatia but also against interests of
the European stability, he said.
Croatia did not abandon its responsibility for peace and
stability in the area, but it did not want any associations,
Tudjman said.
Foreign Minister Dini said that Italy supported Croatia's
efforts to get closer to the EU and European integration, and his
country also looked with favour on the normalization of relations
between Croatia and other countries that had emerged in the area of
the former Yugoslavia.
I could understand Croatia's objective concern about regional
Balkan approaches that should not, politically, be taken seriously,
Dini added.
He said that the economic cooperation was needed between the
countries of the former Yugoslavia, but Croatia should seek its
support in central Europe and the Mediterranean.
Present at the talks was also Croatia's Foreign Minister Mate
Granic.
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