Serbian Foreign Minister Ivan Mrkic has said there is no resistance to a meeting between Croatian President Ivo Josipovic and Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, and that Josipovic has expressed willingness to meet with Nikolic but the meeting has not been discussed and will be held once all conditions have been met.
Speaking to Wednesday's press in Belgrade after visiting Zagreb earlier this week, Mrkic praised the reception and cooperation he was met with in Zagreb, saying Jospovic "most cordially sent his regards to President Nikolic" and that he was "very constructive in the wish to improve relations."
"He supported Serbia in every sense, saying that the European Union should give us a date (to begin accession negotiations), that we deserved it," Mrkic was quoted as saying in Politika daily.
Asked if Josipovic had mentioned the possibility of meeting with Nikolic, Mrkic said, "He very clearly expressed his willingness to meet with President Nikolic."
Reminded that Josipovic had asked that Nikolic renounce his Chetnik past before that, Mrkic said "no mention was made of that."
"Everything that is happening between our two governments is a preparation for a meeting of the two presidents, which will take place if we create the conditions. There is no resistance to a meeting on the top level, there certainly hasn't been any on our side," he was quoted as saying.
He said Josipovic was especially interested in solving the issue of the war's missing and in estimates of whether Belgrade and Zagreb could withdraw the genocide lawsuits against each other.
Asked if the Hague war crimes tribunal's acquittal of Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac and Serbian general Momcilo Perisic had contributed to a change of views of the lawsuits, Mrkic said Croatia should be the first to withdraw the lawsuit, since it had filed it first, to be followed by Serbia.
"If we develop this cooperative relationship as much as possible, I'm sure that everyone will be mature enough and smart not to insist on litigation because we have different points of view of the past," he said.
"It's a matter of political decision. It is my understanding that the Croats are willing to withdraw the suit. We aren't nervous. We only responded to what Croatia did. If it withdraws the suit, we will do so too."
Speaking to Blic daily, Mrkic said the lawsuits could only burden Serbian-Croatian relations and the future generations. "We and they both want to create a climate to withdraw the lawsuits. I believe this will happen by the end of the year."
