Mesic said earlier today that by receiving the retired generals, Josipovic undermined his decision on their retirement.
Josipovic said in Split the reception in his office was an opportunity "in which we remembered the Homeland War and those people meant something in the Homeland War." He added that Mesic retired Gotovina as well. "Does that mean that I shouldn't have received him either?"
Josipovic said Mesic's decision in 2000 was right because it was a time when "generals became engaged in an inappropriate way... But that time is over and today we view relations with them in a different way."
He said more than ten years had passed since the retirement of the generals and that "even when you go to jail for murder and you come back, you are rehabilitated."
Asked by the press if he would rehabilitate the retired generals, Josipovic said there was no need for that.
Asked if Croatia's relations with Serbia were as bad as Serbia claimed, he said "they see it like that in Serbia, but it shouldn't be so."
"I remind you that huge progress has been made in the last three years and that when foreigners hear that we even have military cooperation agreements, they almost don't believe it," Josipovic said, adding that Croatia-Serbia relations could be much better.
"There is evidently a cooling off probably caused by political positions that have somewhat changed in Serbia and by the dissatisfaction with the Hague tribunal's ruling."
Josipovic said there was no reason not to continue the cooperation achieved to date and that when conditions were met, the cooperation would certainly improve.
Asked if he would take part in smoothing out the relations with Serbia, given that Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic and Deputy Prime Minister Neven Mimica were meeting with Serbian officials in an attempt to do so, Josipovic said meetings at the presidential level had symbolic value.
"Such meetings are useful if there is a common platform which, at this moment, it will probably be very difficult to find," Josipovic said, adding that the cooperation between the governments should continue and be intensified.
"There will come a time for meetings between prime ministers and presidents as well, most certainly," he said.