GOOD NEIGHBOURLY RELATIONS WITH BOSNIA ARE CROATIA'S STRATEGIC AIM

( Editorial: --> 7527 ) ZAGREB, April 16 (Hina) - The development of good neighbourly relations with Bosnia-Herzegovina is one of Croatia's strategic goals, Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic said on Friday during talks with Bosnian Federation Prime Minister Edhem Bicakcic. Granic recalled the Washington Agreement which established the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina as a community of two peoples, Croats and Bosniaks. He also recalled the Split Declaration which created political preconditions for the military liberation of occupied areas of Croatia and a part of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and, most importantly, the Dayton Agreement, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Croatia fully endorsed the consistent implementation of both agreements, and held that the establishment of the Bosnian Federation, in line with the constitution, was a guarantee of the existence of the Croat people in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Granic stressed that Croats, as the least numerous of the three constitutive peoples in Bosnia-Herzegovina, were in a very delicate position, and further emigration would jeopardise the footing of the Bosnian Federation, and, as a result, Bosnia- Herzegovina as had been envisaged by the Dayton Agreement. Granic accentuated it was necessary to develop a sense of security on the local level of municipalities and cantons, and, with the agreed return to Mostar, intensify the return of refugees to Bugojno, Travnik, Stolac and other places. Around 370,000 Croats live in Bosnia-Herzegovina nowadays, as opposed to the pre-war 828,000, Granic said, stressing the constitutional and moral obligation of Croatia to provide care for Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bicakcic and Granic agreed that it was important to intensify efforts aimed at accelerating negotiations on the agreement on special relations between Croatia and the Bosnian Federation, the Croatian port of Ploce and Neum, as well as on the establishment of a consortium for the construction of a highway, which would additionally institutionalise and consolidate bilateral relations, adding the previously signed Agreement on the Council for cooperation between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. All of this would fulfill agreements from a joint statement by Croatian President Tudjman and the chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegovic, signed in Split last August. (hina) lm/mrb 171607 MET apr 98