Croatian and Serbian Presidents Ivo Josipovic and Boris Tadic on Saturday reaffirmed their commitment to cooperation in efforts to deal with outstanding issues in the region in the European spirit and to the integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina as a country of three equal peoples.
Addressing a debate on the western Balkans which was held within the Brussels Summit, both Josipovic and Tadic said that Bosnia's territorial integrity must be preserved and that solutions to problems should be sought by the three constituent peoples-- Bosniaks, Craots and Serbs.
Former U.S. ambassador to NATO, Alexander Versbow said during the debate that there was a danger of the disintegration of Bosnia-Herzegovina that was still unfunctional despite efforts by his country and the European Union.
President Josipovic said that during their first meeting in Opatija three days before, he and Tadic sent an unequivocal message that Croatia and Serbia were committed to Bosnia's territorial integrity.
Our messages from Opatija clearly show that both Croatia and Serbia are willing to help, that they have no claims on parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina's territory and that they do not support forces that would like to secede from Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is necessary to do two things to find a solution in Bosnia-Herzegovina: first, the country must be made functional, and, second, the three peoples must reach agreement without interference from other sides, Josipovic said adding that it was clear that all should help Bosnia-Herzegovina to find the adequate constitutional solution.
Tadic said that it was well known that Serbia supported Bosnia's integrity.
This means that we do not support any action aimed at the division of Bosnia-Herzegovina. We would like to be active in efforts to settle the existing problems in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but we cannot impose the solution, Tadic said.
He added that his government was working on the reconciliation on Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) and Serbs and announced the adoption of a resolution "on the war crime in Srebrenica" by Serbia's parliament next week.
Josipovic and Tadic added that upon their admission to the EU, their respective countries would not abuse the EU membership in order to impose their solutions to possible bilateral problems with their neighbours.
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