ZAGREB, 18 Feb (Hina) - It is of utmost importance for Croatia that Belgrade has a constructive role in the completion of reintegration of the Croatian Danubian area, which means that Belgrade should behave correctly during that
process, said Croatia's Foreign Minister Mate Granic ahead of his one-day visit to Belgrade, scheduled for Wednesday.
ZAGREB, 18 Feb (Hina) - It is of utmost importance for Croatia that
Belgrade has a constructive role in the completion of reintegration
of the Croatian Danubian area, which means that Belgrade should
behave correctly during that process, said Croatia's Foreign
Minister Mate Granic ahead of his one-day visit to Belgrade,
scheduled for Wednesday. #L#
Granic is to pay a working visit to the Yugoslav capital
tomorrow at the invitation of his counterpart Milan Milutinovic.
This is the second meeting between the two ministers since the
signing of the Agreement on the Normalisation of Relations between
Croatia and Yugoslavia, signed on 23 August 1996.
Yugoslavia's Milutinovic visited Zagreb at the end of October
last year.
A return visit by Croatia's Mate Granic was planned for the
second half of December last year, but due to the internal
political situation in Serbia the agreed meetings of Croatian and
Yugoslav delegations on different levels were temporarily frozen.
'It is realistic to expect Belgrade's correct behaviour
towards the completion of peaceful reintegration of the Croatian
Danubian area since possible incidents and possible departure of
great numbers of Serbs from the area could result in great pressure
against Serbia', Granic said.
Croatia's strategic aim is the peaceful completion of the
reintegration process, he stressed.
Croatia is not pressured any more into giving additional
concessions to the local Serbs, Granic said, adding that it is
expected of Croatia, as its last obligation, to publish a list of
persons indicted of war crimes.
Croatia is willing, as it has done with other neighbors, to
sign a bilateral agreement with Belgrade on the protection of
minorities.
During tomorrow's meeting, the two delegations are expected to
discuss the problem of missing persons, refugees, border crossings,
railway traffic and air corridors agreements, the signing of a
basic economic agreement and a property agreement which should
speed up the solution of the issue of succession to the former
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Granic said.
'The meeting in Belgrade will be a working meeting and it is
in Croatia's interest to start the solution of those questions', he
said.
Croatia's goal is to independently regulate its relations with
all neighbouring states on the basis of mutual interest, since it
will strengthen Croatia's position towards the European Union,
Granic said.
After the departure of the U.N. Transitional Administration in
Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES), Croatia wants to have a stable border so
that it could turn to its internal development, Granic said,
stressing the importance of regulating border crossings between
Croatia and Yugoslavia.
The solution of that problem is also important for the
successful completion of the UNTAES mission, he added.
Croatia's has full support of the international community in
the process of reintegration. Moreover, the success of the UNTAES
mission is what the international community wants as a proof that
international peace operations can be successful.
Successful completion of the peaceful reintegration of the
Croatian Danubian area will be an incentive to the Bosnian peace
process, Granic estimated.
Asked to comment on latest developments in Mostar, Granic said
that Croatia fully accepted the commitments it took over by signing
the Dayton peace agreement. Croatia strongly supported the project
of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina considering it to be in the
interest of both Croats and Bosniacs, he said.
Minister Granic is also expected to meet the Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic.
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181355 MET feb 97