"This country deserves a better future and it will have it. On that road Croatia will be a loyal and true friend and I personally its tireless advocate," Grabar-Kitarovic said at a ceremony in the National Theatre where she received the Isa-beg Ishakovic Award for promoting cooperation and understanding between the two countries.
The award is given by the Sarajevo-based nongovernmental organisation Klepsidra, which aims to promote multi-ethnic values, tolerance and co-existence. Previous recipients include former Croatian President Stjepan Mesic and Presidents Borut Pahor of Slovenia, Heinz Fischer of Austria and Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
Citing reasons for giving the award to the Croatian president, jury member David Kamhi said that she demonstrated a strong determination that Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, being related cultures, "share their future within the community of European cultures and the NATO alliance."
"Friendship is more than words and award giving is more than this modest ceremony. In the tradition of our culture, a friend deserves the greatest respect one can express," Kamhi said.
Grabar-Kitarovic said she was receiving the award with her deepest respect as a mark of her own recognition and recognition of Croatia. In her speech she remembered many prominent Croats from Bosnia and Herzegovina and spoke of her emotional ties to Sarajevo from her student days.
She said that regardless of the present borders in the region, it was clear that the future of its states lay within the European Union and NATO. "Bosnia and Herzegovina and the entire area of southeastern Europe is too European to be left outside the EU borders," she added, noting that she did not believe that the EU was tired of expanding because that would mean that it was tired of its own future.
The appeal of the idea of European unity and the values on which it is based is paradoxically confirmed by the present refugee crisis because masses of unfortunate people see the EU as their salvation and guarantee of a dignified life, the Croatian president said. "That means that those people believe in our values."
In conclusion, Grabar-Kitarovic said she would continue advocating equality of the constituent peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina, expressing hope that the country would continue to develop in a peaceful and prosperous way.
The Croatian president is scheduled to visit Mostar on Friday and Banja Luka on Saturday.