Commenting on the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks' release of confidential US diplomatic documents, Croatian President Ivo Josipovic has told the commercial Nova TV network that it "is a very serious diplomatic, political and security event", but that the documents revealed will not affect Croatia's foreign policy.
"What is not good is that not only will some diplomatic secrets, gossips be revealed - data on which the security of peoples and countries depends could be leaked as well," Josipovic told Nova TV on Friday evening in a comment on the scandal which has also touched Croatia, through cables sent to the US State Department from the US Embassy in Zagreb.
As for observations about Croatia in the revealed documents, Josipovic said that such remarks were nothing unusual. "If we taped our own conversations, there would be more or less gossip in them as well. I don't think it deserves any special attention."
Asked if one should be afraid that something compromising Croatia would be revealed, Josipovic said he believed that there was no reason for concern.
He added that Croatians should get used to being commented on "by our partners, friends and also by those who are not our friends".
Commenting on one of the observations in the leaked documents saying that Croatia should have entered the EU back in 2004, Josipovic said that Croatian politicians had announced it too. "We still have not managed to do it, but I hope that next year we will complete the talks and that in 2012 or on 1 January 2013 at the latest Croatia will be a member of the EU."
He underlined that the documents that were being revealed and that might wound some egos would not and should not affect Croatia's foreign policy.
"Croatia today has a principled foreign policy which is oriented towards the EU and towards reconciliation with the neighbours, and which is active in all Euro-Atlantic integration processes."
