Twenty-one years ago on Tuesday, Croatia was recognised as an independent state by the European Union members, while Germany, which together with the Vatican played a key role in the process, established diplomatic relations with Zagreb on the same day.
On 15 January 1992, Croatia was waging a war of defence as one third of the country was occupied by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Serb insurgents. Croatia managed to regain control of its eastern border only after the peaceful reintegration of Slavonia and Baranja on 15 January 1998.
On the evening of that day Croatian President Franjo Tudjman said in a state of the nation address that the date of 15 January 1992 would be "engraved in golden letters in the 14-century-long history of the Croatian people on this sacred soil bordered by the Mura, the Drava, the Danube and the Adriatic".
In his message to his associates, Tudjman said that they should celebrate the international recognition that night and as of the following day they should "roll up their sleeves" to build a new democracy.
The international recognition took place in stages after Croatia formally declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) on 25 June 1991. Slovenia did the same and the two countries recognised each other on that same day.
The process of dissolution of the Soviet Union was running in parallel, with the Baltic countries and Ukraine being the first to leave the union. Although those countries had not been internationally recognised at the time, they recognised Croatia in 1991: Lithuania was the first to do so on 30 July 1991, Ukraine followed suit on 11 December, and Latvia and Estonia did it on 14 December and 31 December respectively.
Iceland was the first internationally recognised country to recognise Croatia on 19 December 1991. Later that day Germany did the same, but its decision went into force on 15 January 1992, together with the decisions of other EU member states.
On 13 January 1992, the Holy See formally recognised Croatia and Slovenia, although it had announced its decision to that effect on 20 December 1991. On 3 October 1991 the Vatican's diplomats publicly announced that the Holy See was working on the international recognition of the two countries.
15 January 1992 was a milestone in the process when about 20 countries recognised Croatia.
By the end of January, another seven countries -- Finland, Romania, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia -- did the same.
Russia followed suit on 17 February, Japan on 17 March, the United States on 7 April, Israel on 16 April and China on 27 April of that year.
The first Asian country to recognise Croatia was Iran, which did so on 15 March 1992, and the first African country was Egypt, which recognised Croatia on 16 April 1992.
Croatia was admitted to the United Nations on 22 May 1992.
