Speaking on Croatian Television, Pusic said that "after seven years, thanks to the excellent job" done by the Economy Ministry and Minister Ivan Vrdoljak, Croatia was close to a solution for the privatisation of the three remaining shipyards.
Asked why Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic did not meet with the Gazprom delegation, which was led by the Russian company's Board chairman, Pusic said Vrdoljak spent the whole day with them and that she had a one-hour meeting with them.
"They were excellent, professional, very interesting. Everything they put forward is very interesting for Croatia and if we realise those projects, we have a good chance to reduce the price of gas, perhaps even that of electricity."
Asked if she would run for president of the Croatian People's Party (HNS), Pusic said she would but declined to speculate what would happen if incumbent president Radimir Cacic nominated a candidate.
Regarding Cacic's stepping down as party president, Pusic said it had been agreed that he would resign if he was given a final prison sentence for causing a traffic accident in Hungary with two casualties.
Asked how willing was she to tolerate Cacic's "interfering" with the work of the party and the government, Pusic said he was the incumbent party president so "it's job to do so until he resigns, as we agreed, before the (intra-party) election in March. As for the government, the HNS has excellent results. People work in their departments and we also function as a party, which is a (ruling) coalition partner."
The interviewer remarked that Croatia was often accused of not having a view on foreign politics yet that it had maintained a very clear stance regarding Syria, recognising the Syrian National Coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people, to which Pusic replied that Croatia "for the first time has a foreign policy and very clear positions. It understands what its interests are and stands by those interests."
Pusic said Croatia was doing an excellent job which was recognised by the European Commission. "We are doing an excellent job because we have a clear goal of where we want to get... This also goes with regard to the situation in Syria."
Asked if there were problems with the ratification of Croatia's European Union accession treaty, given that some member countries were waiting for the final monitoring report, and if there was a possibility of some member countries not ratifying it, Pusic said there were no problems with the ratification and that the only outstanding issue in this regard was Slovenia.
"Since (last) spring, we have been talking with Slovenia about separating the settlement of the Ljubljanska Banka issue from the ratification. Our experts have met four times and will meet again on January 29."
Pusic said there would be no problems with the ratification in Germany, which moved the completion of the process one month ahead, or in the Netherlands and Denmark.
She said Croatia had met eight of the ten tasks outlined in last autumn's monitoring report. "The two remaining are the building of booths for the border crossings in Neum, which will be finished on March 31, and the shipyards."