Croatia's Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusic on Monday in Brussels took part for the first time in a meeting of EU foreign ministers and held bilateral talks with a number of her colleagues from the EU.
The meeting focused on the Iranian nuclear program, the situation in Syria and Egypt, the Middle East peace process, the latest developments in Myanmar, the situation in Belarus, and the Serbia-Kosovo dialogue.
Pusic said that all ministers congratulated Croatian citizens on the outcome of Sunday's EU entry referendum. She added that a number of ministers, such as the Latvian, Austrian and Hungarian foreign ministers, said their parliaments would soon start the procedure for the ratification of Croatia's EU Accession Treaty.
She also said that she discussed with some of her colleagues the possibility for Croatian parliamentarians to attend sessions of member-countries' parliaments or parliamentary committees prior to ratification to talk about Croatia as the EU's 28th member.
On the fringes of the Brussels meeting, Pusic met with foreign ministers Villy Soevndal of Denmark, Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata of Italy, Edgars Rinkevics of Latvia and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton.
Pusic said she took part in discussions on the Middle East peace process and the situation in Belarus. As for Belarus, Pusic underlined the need to establish a European foundation for democracy to help build civil society and alternative political elites in that country, saying that sanctions alone were not enough and that it was necessary to help provide an alternative.
