Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said on Thursday that it would be "comical if it weren't worrying" that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is constantly scaring citizens with stories that Croatia is creating a military alliance against Serbia.
Milanovic said this at a ceremonial academy on the occasion of the Croatian Armed Forces Day, recalling that Croatian Defense Minister Ivan Anušić signed a Declaration on Cooperation in the Field of Security and Defense with Albania and Kosovo last year.
After that, Vučić began accusing Zagreb of forming a military alliance with Tirana and Pristina against Belgrade.
"The president of our neighboring country is not giving up on scaring his citizens with stories about an attack by Croatia and Albanians on Serbia. This would be comical if it weren't so pointless and disturbing," Milanovic said, according to Direktno.hr.
He added that, since such statements come from the head of state, people are starting to wonder if there is any truth to this.
"I know it's humiliating to constantly explain and justify this, but I'm speaking for the sake of our people. Partly for the sake of the Serbs, so that they understand what a useless business this is," the Croatian president said.
Milanovic also described as "worthless" the statements of several senior officials of the Baltic states, who, as he said, were calling for an attack on the Leningrad Region, without mentioning specific names.
"We are in solidarity based on Article 5 of NATO. But to what extent? Absolutely. So we have no influence or knowledge of what any of our 30 allied states mean," Milanovic said.
He added that Croatia is in an unenviable position because it has its soldiers in Lithuania.
Speaking about international conflicts, Milanovic said that today, in addition to Russia as the aggressor in Ukraine, "we also have an aggressor in the Middle East."
Due to the security situation, he also ordered the withdrawal of Croatian soldiers from Iraq and Lebanon.
"International law is the best friend of small states when it is not humiliated and violated in the way it is done today," Milanovic said. /The GeoPost
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