President Milanović after Meeting with Turkish President Erdoğan: We need more dialogue on regional issues

“We discussed a number of topics – Bosnia and Herzegovina, the war in Ukraine, the position of Türkiye, which is delicate and unique, its role as a link and mediator, and about the exchange of goods,” said the President of the Republic of Croatia Zoran Milanović after meeting with the President of the Republic of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is paying an official visit today to the Republic of Croatia.

President Milanović believes that trade between Croatia and Türkiye is not at an adequate level. “My impression after the first year of my mandate as President of the Republic was that the only entrepreneurs and owners of major companies who showed interest and came to Pantovčak were exclusively from Türkiye,” said the Croatian President, adding that this is not enough. “We must take a step forward and offer from our side what we can as a member of the EU and NATO, as a stable, peaceful and secure upper-middle-income country with the desire to become a high and very high-income country,” President Milanović pointed out.

In this sense, the President said that cooperation with the Republic of Türkiye will continue in the field of the economy, relations in the neighbourhood and given the influence that President Erdoğan has in Bosnia and Herzegovina and on certain political structures in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with which we must hold talks. “We need to talk more about these topics among ourselves. We see good intentions, but also that we are insufficiently familiar with each other’s views. Perhaps we do not know each other well enough. We need more dialogue. I believe that the intentions are good,” President Milanović concluded.

The President of the Republic of Türkiye opened his remarks by expressing great satisfaction that after six years he is again in Zagreb at the invitation of the President of the Republic of Croatia. “Türkiye and Croatia are marking the thirtieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations this year. Our two countries are friendly and allied with deep historical and cultural roots, and we perceive each other as neighbouring countries, even though we have no common borders. Türkiye was one of the first countries to deliver aid after natural disasters in Croatia, and last year Croatia sent a firefighting airplane and showed solidarity in this regard,” said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

“Today we signed three agreements and exchanged opinions on various issues regarding regional activities. We also had the opportunity to discuss the general elections that will be held in Bosnia and Herzegovina in October, and we discussed in detail the events in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Trade between our countries showed a strong recovery last year, and of course we want to further improve it. The interest of Turkish companies in investing in Croatia is at a satisfactory level, our companies are implementing important projects in various sectors, especially in the energy, construction, tourism and banking sectors,” President Erdoğan emphasized.

He added that Türkiye closely monitors all events in the region and contributes whenever necessary in this regard. “During our talks we touched on common steps that we can take to jointly strengthen peace and stability in Southeast Europe. We emphasized our support for the peace, stability and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its path towards European integration, and we also agreed to continue the dialogue on the matter of Bosnia and Herzegovina after the upcoming elections,” said the President of the Republic of Türkiye.

“For more than a year now, the government and I have been trying to correct some injustices and direct violations of the Dayton Agreement, which is the basis of peace and functioning of Bosnia and Herzegovina and, at its core, an agreement on the division of power, utterly delicate. I will not repeat our well-known positions – that Croats are the least numerous, that they are one of the three constituent peoples and that matters can only be resolved by agreement among the legitimate representatives of the constituent peoples. At this moment in Bosnia and Herzegovina, they are not everyone presenting themselves as such,” said President Milanović, in response to a reporter’s question about the position of Croatia and Türkiye on the election process in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Regarding the role of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, President Milanović said he was critical of the role because the representative was elected in an irregular manner, without the consent of all members of the Security Council. “I don’t know what will happen in the elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I absolutely gave my all and more than I should have. I expected some others to be more involved. Now the elections are less than a month away and I really don’t know what the High Representative will do. So far he has not done anything. If he does something I will have to admit that I am satisfied with it. This is where the positions of President Erdoğan and I differ, of Croatia and Türkiye, and this shows that we need more detailed discussions to highlight the problems that Türkiye, due to its size and distance, is not aware of at all,” said President Milanović.

Responding to the same question from the reporter, President Erdoğan emphasized that he had the opportunity to hold talks with the leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina, during which they discussed in detail the current problems. “If you ask me why the problem arose, it arose because of the Dayton Agreement, because it did not solve the problems in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but we could not do anything at that moment and we had to sign it. Today, Bosniak Muslims, Croats and Serbs live in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we have entities in BiH and leaders who represent these peoples, and I believe that the final decisions in BiH should be made by the leaders of BiH. There are certain mechanisms, some of which we, Croatia, Türkiye and Bosnia and Herzegovina participate in. We also have a trilateral mechanism including Serbia, Türkiye and Bosnia and Herzegovina and we can meet from time to time and talk about this, especially after the general elections that will be held in October, in order to speed up this process because the unity and integrity of BiH is of great importance. Bosnia and Herzegovina paid a heavy burden for that and I don’t want anyone to pay such a tab in the future,” concluded the President of the Republic of Türkiye.

Several interstate agreements were signed in the presence of the two Presidents in the Office of the President of the Republic. Memorandums of understanding between the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia and the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Türkiye on cooperation in ensuring public peace and order and on cooperation in the field of disaster and emergency management were signed by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia Dr. Davor Božinović and the Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Türkiye Süleyman Soylu. The Protocol on Cooperation between the State Archives of the Republic of Croatia and the Directorate of State Archives of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye was signed by the Director of the State Archives of the Republic of Croatia Dinko Čutura and the Director of the State Archives of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye Uğur Ünal.

During the tête-à-tête between the two Presidents, separate meetings were held in the Office of the President of the Republic by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Türkiye and the Republic of Croatia, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Gordan Grlić-Radman, and the Ministers of the Interior of the Republic of Türkiye and the Republic of Croatia, Süleyman Soylu and Dr. Davor Božinović.

PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Tomislav Bušljeta, Filip Glas, Marko Beljan