By: Nevena Šarenac
With this symbolic visit, Croatia and I wish to show how important BiH is as our neighbor, partner and friend, announced today in Sarajevo the President of Croatia Ivo Josipović. He is on an official visit to BIH.
This is his first official visit to a country after 1 July, when Croatia became a full member of the EU.
With military honors and the anthems of the two countries, President Josipović was formally greeted in front of the BIH Presidency building, after which there was a meeting of a Croatian and BiH delegation.
With members of the BiH Presidency, President Josipović spoke of the support of Croatia for BIH’s path towards EU membership, as well as unresolved issues between the two countries.
President Josipović said that Croatia would help the path of its neighbors towards the EU, both politically and technically.
“The experience that we had during discussions is something that is at the disposal of our neighbors and friends’’, said the President of Croatia. He added that his country has the capacity and willingness to support BiH’s path towards the EU.
“Today will be a chance for the BiH and Croatian delegation to discuss on the set of issues that have to be solved, such as issues of the border, property, succession, infrastructure and energy capacities’’, said Josipović.
At a joint conference for journalists, Chairman of the BiH Presidency Nebojša Radmanović, on behalf of the Presidency and citizens of BiH, expressed satisfaction that today is an opportunity to host President Ivo Josipović, and once again congratulated Croatia’s membership to the EU.
He stressed that BiH expects a lot from Croatia, as its neighbor and as an EU member. He said that during the meeting they spoke of inter-state and regional cooperation, stability of Balkan countries and their path towards the EU.
They also spoke of economic cooperation of BiH and Croatia, and they agreed that it should be improved. It was pointed out that Croatia is among the first three most important foreign investors in BiH and the most important trade partner.
According to the protocol of the visit, Chairman of the BiH Council of Ministers Vjekoslav Bevanda will be the host of today’s working dinner with President Josipović. It was announced earlier that during this meeting, they would speak o the impact of Croatia’s accession to the EU on the BiH economy.
It is planned that BiH ministers, and the Presidents of the FBiH and RS governments will attend the working dinner.
On the second day of the official visit to BIH, the Croatian President will visit the District of Brčko to speak with its leaders and to visit the construction site of the bridge over the River Sava, which is being built along with Corridor 5C.
On the same day in the afternoon, Josipović will speak in Tuzla with leaders of the city and Tuzla Canton, and he will meet with Croat representative in the canton. He will also visit the future Croatian Center that is under renovation and he will light a candle in front of the memorial plaque at the Square ‘Prekinute Mladosti”, which was erected to commemorate the 71 young people who lost their lives there in 1995.
At the end of the two-day visit, President Josipović will participate in the signing of the Agreement on cooperation between the Tuzla University and Zagreb University.
