WASHINGTON, July 11 (Hina) - Croatia's ambassador in Washington Ivan Grdesic, on Thursday held talks with Republican Senator John McCaine about the issue of a Croatia-U.S. accord on the non-extradition of Americans to the
International Criminal Court (ICC).
WASHINGTON, July 11 (Hina) - Croatia's ambassador in Washington
Ivan Grdesic, on Thursday held talks with Republican Senator John
McCaine about the issue of a Croatia-U.S. accord on the non-
extradition of Americans to the International Criminal Court
(ICC). #L#
Croatia's refusal to sign the agreement, and the previous
withholding of support to the United States military action in
Iraq, has been one of the reasons of recently strained relations.
Grdesic told Hina he informed McCain of how difficult it was for
Croatia in terms of internal affairs to sign the bilateral
agreement because it was linked to Croatia's cooperation with the
war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
According to the ambassador, the senator from Arizona said Croatia
should resume talks with the U.S. government in order to find a
third solution which should satisfy the U.S. need to protect its
troops from politically motivated persecutions as well as continue
U.S. military aid to Croatia on the road to NATO.
Grdesic said this solution would be to come to an agreement under
which Croatia would not be denied individual U.S. military aid
programmes and that the two sides should address this matter from
programme to programme.
McCain showed understanding for Croatia's problems concerning the
ICC accord and said other European countries had similar
reservations about the agreement, Grdesic told Hina.
Croatia-U.S. talks on the matter are continuing. Croatia's
Assistant Defence Minister Jelena Grcic-Polic is in Washington
discussing military cooperation and the ICC with representatives
of the Department of Defence and the State Department.
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