Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman on Friday expressed their willingness to improve bilateral relations and ensure political representation for ethnic Croats and Serbs living in each others’ territory.
Vučić and Radman visited the Serbian city of Novi Sad on Friday, where Serbian authorities handed over a renovated house that belonged to the celebrated Croatian viceroy ‘Ban’ Josip Jelačić to the Croatian National Council (CNC), a representative body of the Croat minority. The ceremony, which was held on Jelačić’s birth anniversary, was a significant win for ethnic Croats in the Vojvodina region, who have been demanding the return of the house for years, to turn it into a memorial centre and an office for the local minority community. The CNC had already announced that it owned a part of the house in June, after donating around EUR 600,000 for its purchase to the Serbian government.
In a bilateral meeting and a press conference following the ceremony, Radman stressed, “Peace, stability and good neighbourly relations are of the utmost importance. I think there is a good will on both sides that we need to intensify the dialogue.” The minister also added that bilateral efforts to search for around 1,869 missing persons from the two countries’ 1991-1995 war should be stepped up. “We have opened a new chapter of cooperation. We see the past through different glasses, but we live in the present and need to define the future. We are oriented towards each other,” he said.
“We are ready, already next week when the formation of the new government begins, to make access to local administrations for members of the Croatian community in Vojvodina considerably easier,” Vučić confirmed. The Serbian President also said that while discussions were “neither pleasant nor easy” for either side, such talks are the most useful tools going forward as they benefit Serbs in Croatia and Croats in Serbia, regardless of differences in opinion. “It is good for our nations for us to come closer together rather than grow apart, and there are many reasons for that. We are both much smaller than we think of ourselves,” Vučić said, stressing the importance of peace preservation between the Serbs and Croats.
Croatia and Serbia are the largest republics to have emerged from the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1991. The two have often sought to improve relations since their 1991-1995 war, but several hurdles have remained due to the historical and lived experiences of their people. Serbia is also actively working towards patching up its ties with Croatia in a bid to join the European Union.
However, Grlić Radman noted that while the return of Ban Jelačić’s house provided “a spiritual, cultural, traditional connection” for the Croat community, it “should not be the culmination of Vučić’s administration in relation to Croats”.
Croatia, Serbia Express Readiness to Improve Ties
The Serbian President and the Croatian Foreign Minister met on Friday at a ceremony where the Serbian authorities handed over the house of a celebrated Croat viceroy to a local representative body.
October 20, 2020
Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman (L) and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in Petrovaradin, Novi Sad. SOURCE: FENIX MAGAZIN