Croatian President Ivo Josipovic and Serbian President Boris Tadic said in Zagreb on Wednesday that it was important that Croatian-Serbian relations were improving because they were the foundation of stability in Southeast Europe.
The two presidents made the statement at a reception the Serbian Embassy in Zagreb organised at Zagreb's Westin Hotel on the occasion of Tadic's official visit to Croatia.
"We are all doing a very important thing for us and our children, for our grandchildren and our future - we are leaving the vicious circle of hatred," Tadic said, with Josipovic adding that there were many problems that remained to be solved, "and those problems can be solved only by the countries that have decided to be friends."
He expressed confidence that there was enough responsibility on both sides for that.
"Visits, whether they are official or unofficial, are meaningful only if they yield good results, if we create new opportunities for Serbs in Croatia and for Croats in Serbia, if we create room for creativity, for contribution to our two countries, to the culture of our two nations, if Serbian-Croatian relations improve and if we manage to find our own place in Southeast Europe," Tadic said.
Describing his relationship with Josipovic, Tadic said that he was confident they shared the same approach to politics. "We are great friends, belong to the same generation, we share a similar value system and think similarly about Serbian-Croatian relations," the Serbian president said.
He went on to say that Yugoslavia was gone forever, and that the European Union would offer "a common political sky" to countries in the region.
"Yugoslavia does not exist any more and it will never exist again, one should not harbour any illusions about that, but I am confident that we share the same political sky, the European Union. There, in a political sense, we will again be together, but also sufficiently apart to avoid the feeling of being threatened by one another," Tadic said, adding that he hoped Croatia would soon become an EU member and that it would advocate Serbia's admission, just as Serbia would advocate the admission of all other countries in the region.
Tadic, who is on a two-day official visit to Croatia, earlier in the day held talks with President Josipovic, Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor, Parliament Speaker Luka Bebic, and representatives of the Serb National Council.
