Plenković says Milanović’s policies will isolate Croatia

The Croatian Prime Minister was in Paris today where he attended France's annual Bastille Day military parade. The parade featured aircraft from eleven European countries and around five hundred soldiers from the informal ‘Coalition of the willing.’

Representing Croatia at Tuesday’s Bastille Day military parade were twenty-two members of the Lučko Anti-Terrorist Unit. The unit falls under the Interior Ministry and Police and not the Defense Ministry and the Armed Forces. However, the decision to send the Anti-Terrorist Unit was adopted by the government of Prime Minister Andrej Plenković after President Zoran Milanović - the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces - blocked government's decision to send representatives of the Croatian Armed Forces to Paris.

Prime Minister Plenković commented on the decision after attending today's parade in Paris: “This is about ceremony or a potential war in the future. This is about where we belong. Over the past 35 years Croatia has strived to join the NATO alliance and the European Union. As a victim of a war of aggression, Croatia knew what the foundational principles it stands for are - whether that's international law or clearly defining who is committing an aggression on foreign territory. Things are quite clear here. Only Milanović and his followers fail to see it. Unfortunately, this is a semi-provincial view of international events that they are spreading throughout Croatia, and in-so-doing are isolating Croatia. Luckily, the Croatian Government and the policies we are promoting are stopping them from succeeding.”

Yesterday, the thirty odd leaders of the ‘Coalition of the willing’ led by their host Emmanuel Macron, discussed security guarantees for Ukraine. Interestingly France is the second largest exporter of weapons in the world and in recent years, as tensions between Europe and Russia continue to grow, its exports to other European countries has grown by more than five times.

Source: HRT