Croatian-Serbian relations have gone through a rough patch since the 1991-95 Homeland War and Wednesday's meeting between Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic and Serbian PM Ivica Dacic in Belgrade will be the first working meeting between the two countries' leaders since last May's elections in Serbia and, according to analysts, it should mark a new stage in their relations.
The complex Zagreb-Belgrade relations experienced a temporary ascent during the first and the beginning of the second term of former Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, who often met with his Serbian counterpart Boris Tadic. Relations took a step back after Croatia recognised Kosovo's independence, resulting in Tadic's failure to attend the 2010 inauguration of Croatian President Ivo Josipovic.
Josipovic and Tadic met at a working meeting in Opatija in March that year and the relations improved until the Serbian May 2012 elections when Dacic was elected PM and Tomislav Nikolic President.
The relations deteriorated again after the Hague war crimes tribunal acquitted Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac late last year, prompting Belgrade to toughen its rhetoric.
"Did we have great relations, so this will reflect on them? We had no relationship at all," Dacic said at that time when asked how the acquittal would reflect on Serbian-Croatian relations. Nikolic used similar and even harsher language.
At the turn of the year, Dacic began to change his rhetoric, saying in a series of interviews that "Serbia must cooperate with Croatia" and that Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were much closer to Serbia than some other countries, mentioning Lithuania.
Only eight days ago, Dacic said Zagreb-Belgrade relations should be "unfrozen, reset and begun again."
Although political relations were cold, there was cooperation in other fields, as Josipovic recently told the media.
"Prime Minister Dacic expressed himself poetically and said our relations should be reset, that he wanted to meet with our Prime Minister Milanovic. I think that's good and that this meeting will put our relations back on the right track. Today they are colder than they were," he said but added that "the colder rhetoric hasn't disrupted practical cooperation" between the two countries, which has improved considerably in recent years.
Croatian and Serbian officials informally met at international conferences. Josipovic and Nikolic exchanged greetings in London and a similar meeting took place between Milanovic and Nikolic in New York on the fringes of a UN General Assembly session. The first meeting of senior officials since the Gotovina-Markac acquittal was between foreign ministers Vesna Pusic of Croatia and Ivan Mrkic of Serbia on the sidelines of an Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe Ministerial Council meeting in Dublin.
Milanovic's visit to Belgrade will be the first by a Croatian PM to the Serbian capital since Ivo Sanader visited in March 2009.
Analysts predict that the visit, which will be a working instead of an official visit in order to avoid playing the national anthems and a military review, will provide an opportunity for general talks and resumption of dialogue. Milanovic and Dacic are expected to discuss regional cooperation and cooperation on the path to EU membership and most likely will not address outstanding issues such as missing persons from the 1991-95 war and the genocide suits the two countries have filed against each other.
