Ministers adopted a decision to that effect at an extraordinary session, with Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic saying that within five minutes of its adoption, Croatian trucks and goods could enter Serbia without disruption. He told the ministers to build "the best possible relations with Croatia and all other neighbours" in future.
The one-week conflict had brought the relations between the two countries to the lowest level since the break-up of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. By blocking the border, the Croatian government said it wanted to force Serbia to reroute some migrants coming from the Middle East to the Hungarian border and not only to Croatia. More than 60,000 migrants entered Croatia from Serbia over the past week.
Croatian Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic said earlier on Friday that the government had reopened the border after Serbia had opened the Horgos crossing on its border with Hungary for migrants, but Vucic told Croatian Television that Serbia had not yielded to Croatia's pressure or opened a corridor towards Horgos, and that the migrants were choosing their own route.
At the government session, Vucic asked the ministers not to "humiliate those who made a mistake by adopting such measures" and not to "react to possible campaigns or participate in that, but focus on progress."
He welcomed the Croatian government's decision to reopen the border "regardless of the motive... The Republic of Croatia abandoned its unilateral measures against Serbia, which I don't see as a victory of the Republic of Serbia and our government, but a victory of reason and the future... If we hadn't behaved seriously and responsibly in this crisis, we wouldn't have had the support of so many countries, support which an EU member state didn't get."
Vucic said Croatian citizens and businessmen were welcome in Serbia and apologised for the fact that "import was banned for a day and a half or two" because Serbia "was forced to protect its state and economic sovereignty... We want the best possible relations with Croatia and will do our best to build them in future."
He said the "EU has played a big role" because "Serbia persistently pointed to breaches" of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, "wishing to protect its interests, in which it succeeded... The European Union has shown that the rule of law exists, which is why we have so quickly witnessed the opening of the (border) crossings."