Croatia's President-elect Ivo Josipovic has said in an interview with the Belgrade-based Blic daily that he will propose to Serbian President Boris Tadic that problems pertaining to Croatia's lawsuit against Serbia for genocide and Serbia's counterclaim be settled in a manner which will eliminate the need for the legal actions before the International Court of Justice.
In his interview which was published in Monday's issue of the Serbian daily,Josipovic said he would outline this proposal to Tadic during his inaugurationin Zagreb on 18 February.
In response to the reporter's remark that Tadic would not attend theinauguration if Kosovo's President Fatmir Sejdiu was also invited, Josipovicsaid he had invited in the kindest way the Serbian head of state and that hewould like to have Tadic at his inauguration.
"I can understand problems Serbia has in connection with thedeclaration of Kosovo's independence. I, however, would not like to see thatthe Croatian-Serbian relations hinge on relations with third countries,"Josipovic said adding that Croatia had sent invitations for his inaugurationceremony to all countries with which it had diplomatic relations, includingKosovo.
Josipovic reiterated that lawsuits did not contribute to the improvement ofthe relations and that it would be better to solve problems out of court.
Asked whether he feared that bilateral disputes such as lawsuits before theICJ could be an obstacle to European Union aspirants on their road towards theEuropean bloc, Josipovic answered in the negative.
Josipovic said that upon its entry into the EU, Croatia would not makeproblems out of possible outstanding bilateral issues when it comes to theadmission of its neighbours to the bloc.
He advocates Croatia and Serbia should approach the ICJ over possibleproblems in defining their border.
Josipovic reiterated that good neighbourly relations would be one of thetenets of his foreign policy, adding that Belgrade would be among the firstdestinations of his trips after he assumed office.
