President Milanović: The Croatian diplomat in Belgrade was doing his job, but there are constantly elections in Serbia

“Croatia could only react with a reciprocal measure of the same nature and content toward the Serbian diplomat in Zagreb. What did the Croatian diplomat do? His job, I suppose, like all Croatian diplomats,” said the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović, commenting on the expulsion of the Croatian diplomat in Belgrade.

Commenting on the diplomatic incident, he assessed that it is not a productive measure since it does not contribute to strengthening or preserving the current level of relations, which is not very high. “After the incident in the north of Kosovo a month or so ago, I was quite restrained in regard to the need for a reaction towards Belgrade, to introducing sanctions, which many advocated, because I considered and still consider that sanctions, as an instrument of foreign policy, are usually a failure. I did not do this in order to absolve Croatia of any responsibility for some unacceptable behaviour. I did it out of conviction, without expecting any kind of favour in return. But yes, I agree with you, there are constantly elections in Serbia, it’s good when there are elections,” added President Milanović, responding to the question whether this incident happened because of the upcoming elections in Serbia.