Post by MiG on Mar 11, 2010 0:38:20 GMT -5
Croatia launches new foreign policy drive
ZELJKO TRKANJEC
09.03.2010 @ 12:36 CET
Croatia has begun a new kind of political activity: With almost unprecedented vigour, the country's leadership has thrown itself into foreign policy.
Prime minister Jadranka Kosor met her Slovenian counterpart Borut Pahor and Serbia's president Boris Tadic; president Ivo Josipovic is preparing for visits to Ljubljana, Sarajevo and Budapest; foreign minister Gordan Jandrokovic spoke about regional issues with Slovenia's Samuel Zbogar at a meeting of EU foreign ministers over the weekend.
Ms Kosor is just back from Moscow where she signed an agreement on her country's participation in the South Stream gas pipeline. Mr Jandrokovic was in Beijing recently, Mr Josipovic in Brussels. This kind of foreign policy dynamic has not been seen in Croatia for a very long time.
Croatian foreign policy used to be characterised by regional disengagement. During the time of president Franjo Tudjman (1990 to 2000) things were very simple: His foreign policy followed the goal of creating modern Croatia inside the borders of Banovina Hrvatska, part of the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia established in 1939. Parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina were to be integrated. Fortunately, with the help of the international community, this dangerous plan failed.
In 2000, Croatia got a new president, Stjepan Mesic, and a new government. Mr Mesic started his mandate by visiting Bosnia Herzegovina, amid signs that Croatia was ready to design a new policy towards the region. But in the end, the government lacked the courage to develop ties with its neighbours, assuming the Croatian public was still too strongly opposed to Serbia. Western hopes in Prime Minister Ivica Racan's government were disappointed. The country's political mantra held that "the region is our neighbourhood but not our destiny."
A new obstacle presented itself in 2001 when the International Tribunal in The Hague indicted general Ante Gotovina for alleged war crimes in 1995. The ruling coalition in Zagreb was split over the issue, president Mesic was confused and foreign policy was held hostage to the issue.
In 2003, the newly-elected prime minister Ivo Sanader, set out his priority foreign policy goals: Croatian membership of NATO and the EU, in that order. He solved the problem of co-operation with the Hague tribunal and managed to start EU membership talks.
But Mr Sanader ignored the call by Brussels for an active regional policy. The region was again just a decorative element in official discourse, without real substance in government planning. On that neglected soil, relations between Croatia and neighbouring Slovenia turned increasingly sour, and Ljubljana blocked Croatia's EU accession process in 2009.
Under pressure from his own centre-right HDZ party and unable to break the Slovenian blockade, Mr Sanader stepped down as prime minister in July last year.
With hindsight, his resignation opened the way to a new Croatian foreign policy. Ms Kosor decided to strengthen relations with Russia and China while still pursuing EU membership as the ultimate goal. Her government started in earnest to define a regional policy.
The first results were achieved quickly: Ms Kosor and Mr Pahor found a way to resolve the Croatian-Slovenian border dispute while Zagreb became more active in the process of reforming Bosnia Herzegovina. Serbian president Tadic was invited to Mr Josipovic's inauguration. He turned down the invitation because Kosovo president Fatmir Sejdiu was invited too. But the Croatian president has said he is ready to meet his Serbian colleague any time.
Croatia and Slovenia are co-hosting a regional conference at Brdo kod Kranja in Slovenia on March 20, hoping to boost regional cooperation - a kind of involvement hardly imaginable in Tudjman or Sanader's time.
ZELJKO TRKANJEC
09.03.2010 @ 12:36 CET
Croatia has begun a new kind of political activity: With almost unprecedented vigour, the country's leadership has thrown itself into foreign policy.
Prime minister Jadranka Kosor met her Slovenian counterpart Borut Pahor and Serbia's president Boris Tadic; president Ivo Josipovic is preparing for visits to Ljubljana, Sarajevo and Budapest; foreign minister Gordan Jandrokovic spoke about regional issues with Slovenia's Samuel Zbogar at a meeting of EU foreign ministers over the weekend.
Ms Kosor is just back from Moscow where she signed an agreement on her country's participation in the South Stream gas pipeline. Mr Jandrokovic was in Beijing recently, Mr Josipovic in Brussels. This kind of foreign policy dynamic has not been seen in Croatia for a very long time.
Croatian foreign policy used to be characterised by regional disengagement. During the time of president Franjo Tudjman (1990 to 2000) things were very simple: His foreign policy followed the goal of creating modern Croatia inside the borders of Banovina Hrvatska, part of the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia established in 1939. Parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina were to be integrated. Fortunately, with the help of the international community, this dangerous plan failed.
In 2000, Croatia got a new president, Stjepan Mesic, and a new government. Mr Mesic started his mandate by visiting Bosnia Herzegovina, amid signs that Croatia was ready to design a new policy towards the region. But in the end, the government lacked the courage to develop ties with its neighbours, assuming the Croatian public was still too strongly opposed to Serbia. Western hopes in Prime Minister Ivica Racan's government were disappointed. The country's political mantra held that "the region is our neighbourhood but not our destiny."
A new obstacle presented itself in 2001 when the International Tribunal in The Hague indicted general Ante Gotovina for alleged war crimes in 1995. The ruling coalition in Zagreb was split over the issue, president Mesic was confused and foreign policy was held hostage to the issue.
In 2003, the newly-elected prime minister Ivo Sanader, set out his priority foreign policy goals: Croatian membership of NATO and the EU, in that order. He solved the problem of co-operation with the Hague tribunal and managed to start EU membership talks.
But Mr Sanader ignored the call by Brussels for an active regional policy. The region was again just a decorative element in official discourse, without real substance in government planning. On that neglected soil, relations between Croatia and neighbouring Slovenia turned increasingly sour, and Ljubljana blocked Croatia's EU accession process in 2009.
Under pressure from his own centre-right HDZ party and unable to break the Slovenian blockade, Mr Sanader stepped down as prime minister in July last year.
With hindsight, his resignation opened the way to a new Croatian foreign policy. Ms Kosor decided to strengthen relations with Russia and China while still pursuing EU membership as the ultimate goal. Her government started in earnest to define a regional policy.
The first results were achieved quickly: Ms Kosor and Mr Pahor found a way to resolve the Croatian-Slovenian border dispute while Zagreb became more active in the process of reforming Bosnia Herzegovina. Serbian president Tadic was invited to Mr Josipovic's inauguration. He turned down the invitation because Kosovo president Fatmir Sejdiu was invited too. But the Croatian president has said he is ready to meet his Serbian colleague any time.
Croatia and Slovenia are co-hosting a regional conference at Brdo kod Kranja in Slovenia on March 20, hoping to boost regional cooperation - a kind of involvement hardly imaginable in Tudjman or Sanader's time.
waz.euobserver.com/887/29635