U.S. Policy in Croatia
U.S. Under Secretary Nicholas Burns and Croatian Prime Minister Dr. Ivo Sanader at Joint Press Availability during SEECP Summit
Zagreb, Croatia
May 11, 2007
Joint Press Availability
PM Sanader: Ladies and Gentlemen, I greet you all. I would like to welcome Mr. Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary at the State Department. We had a conversation that was fruitful, friendly and very substantive. We discussed bilateral relations, we discussed, of course, the situation in our southeastern neighborhood. First of all, I would like to thank Mr. Burns for coming to Zagreb. His visit to Zagreb, both as a representative of President Bush and the U.S. Administration says a lot about how the United States, together with the European Union, not only wish to support Croatia on its path to the NATO and European Union, but they also wish to contribute, together with Croatia, to continuous political stabilization of the Southeastern Europe, and I think that this is, with our bilateral aspect in our talks, equally important issue, especially when we see what has been happing in the last few days in Serbia. Of course we talked about the situation in Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and that we all, U.S. Government, Croatia together with the European Union wish, and at the last night's diner we had an opportunity to speak with President Barroso, Greek PM Karamanlis and others, how to make a joint contribution towards finding a lasting solution and that this Southeastern part of Europe, after 17 years of unrest and wars, finds its own way to prosperity and future. We also expressed a hope that there will be, today or in the upcoming days during the constitutional deadline in Serbia, that there might be a solution for pro-democracy powers to join and form a government. Surly, we talked and analyzed my visit to Washington D.C., in October of last year. I expressed my satisfaction and, certainly, my wish to continue with the same relations. Croatia and America are indeed interested not only in this part of Europe, but also in cooperation on other issues as well.
It was a particular joy to hear from Mr. Burns that Croatia will be invited to join NATO next year at the summit in Bucharest. In my opinion, it was the best news because, and I'll say this again, NATO is for us not only a military organization, but it is the organization that shares values, equal values, such as freedom, peace, democracy, respect of human rights, rule of law, social market economy, so that Croatia aspires to be a part of that. And I'll say something more, if Croatia had been a member of NATO in 1991, what happened would never have happen. Therefore, I think messages that Mr. Burns brought to Zagreb today are exceptionally powerful messages and I would like to thank him for both the good cooperation of Croatia and the U.S. and for the support that his Government gives to Croatia.
Under Secretary BURNS: Thank you very much Prime Minister. Thank you for this wonderful welcome to Zagreb. I told the Prime Minister that I'm here representing President Bush and Secretary Rice to convey our strong support for the Croatian Government and for the Prime Minister and what the Prime Minister and Government have been doing for peace and security in this region. We have an excellent relationship with Croatia. We're strong partners, we have a great personal admiration for the Prime Minister himself and for the President of course, and I think I can say that the United States is the strongest supporter of Croatia for NATO membership in 2008. That is the commitment that President Bush made to Prime Minister Sanader when they met, in their very important and historic meeting in the Oval Office last autumn. And we're looking forward to a strong economic and commercial relationship, and to be Croatia's friend as it negotiates the end of the OSCE mission here and negotiates its way into the Euro-Atlantic institutions. We also look to Croatia to be the regional leader here in the Balkans. We discussed our joint cooperation in Bosnia and Herzegovina to help that country to become fully modern in its institutions, and to achieve, we hope, some measure of constitutional reform that will allow it to move forward in peace.
Finally, let me just thank the Croatian Government, the Prime Minister for what Croatia has been doing in Afghanistan and in Kosovo to help NATO and the European Union to achieve peace in both of those places. And let me say that the United States is strongly supporting independence for Kosovo. We will be circulating today with our European allies a Resolution in the Security Council that we believe will lead to the independence of Kosovo by the end of this month. And as Kosovo becomes independent, we Americans want to remain friends with Serbia, and we want to have a good relationship with Serbia, hopefully without the presence of the Radical Party in Serb Parliament, in the Serb Government and Serb Parliament. So, Prime Minister, thank you for this warm welcome, thank you for hosting this conference today. We are here to support Croatia and support the process of regional integration here in the Balkans. Thank you very much.
SIME JURLINA, RTL: I'd like to know if you think, after Mr. Kostunica's party in the Parliament voted to choose a radical for the Speaker of the Parliament, that they are still pro-democratic force. Namely, that is the position of the European Union. What is the U.S. position?
Under Secretary BURNS: Well, we were very disappointed by the appointment of Mr. Nikolic as a Speaker of the Parliament. We hope it can be reversed. We believe the Radicals are the party of the past, the party of war and war criminals, and there's no place for them in modern Europe, and so our message to the Serb Government would be to be, to form a government that will be fully democratic, and fully oriented towards Europe and to a democratic future for Serbia.
ZRINKA VRABEC-MOJZES, RADIO 101: I'm from Radio 101, Your Excellency. There is a question about NATO. I suppose that you've heard about those discussions about NATO here in Croatia. It's good news for it in the Croatian Government, and for most of us that we will get invitation next year on next summit. But, we do have problem with public support here. So, would NATO accept a country whose public does not support NATO membership?
Under Secretary BURNS: First of all, we are supporting Croatia for NATO membership. President Bush has been clear, he made a commitment to the Prime Minister that we would do that. Secondly, we are enormously grateful for what Croatia has already done with NATO. I mentioned the NATO Mission in Afghanistan, but also the NATO Mission in Kosovo which is going to continue after Kosovo independence as a way to guarantee and safeguard the borders of the country, and we hope that the Croatian people will come to see NATO as an organization devoted to peace, devoted to European unity, and devoted to peace keeping. In places like Kosovo, and Bosnia, and Afghanistan. We think that this will happen, we have every reason to believe that Croatian people will be supportive.
PM Sanader: And I'm sure that Croatian people will support, it's about communication strategy. So we are developing new strategy and its showing already results. The newest polls have been showing that the support for NATO membership of Croatia is increasing, and that's true. So, we are working on this, and we hope that the Croatian public will support the membership of NATO as soon as we inform them on all aspect of NATO membership. Thank you very much