Grabar-Kitarović: I want the meeting with Vučić to be truly historic

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said ahead of the signing of the declaration on improving relations between Serbia and Croatia on Monday with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić, that she wants this meeting to "truly be historic" because both sides want to start resolving open issues, while Vučić said that the meeting will be the first step in warming up relations between the two countries, Croatian Jutarnji reported.

In an exclusive interview with Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović for Radio Television of Serbia, she stated that this will not be "just another protocol meeting".

- The sincere will of both sides is to move towards concrete resolution of open issues. This is not just another protocol meeting. Our goal is not for it to be merely recorded on paper or to send a message to the international community that we have met, the president emphasized.

Grabar-Kitarović stressed that the meeting with Vučić on Monday "was not initiated by the international community, but is motivated by the mutual desire to take concrete steps towards bringing the two countries closer".

In an exclusive interview for Croatian Radio Television, the designate for the composition of the future Serbian government, Aleksandar Vučić, said that their meeting will be the first step in warming up relations between Croatia and Serbia.

- I think we have achieved an excellent result. The agreement deals with essential, serious, strategic issues for Serbia and Croatia. We need to try to talk to each other more, to show more respect for each other. What I say, that Croats should step into Serbian shoes more often, and Serbs into Croatian ones, I think we would understand each other better, Vučić said, among other things, in an interview for HRT.

Grabar-Kitarović and Vučić will meet on Monday in Dalj in Croatia, and then visit Tavankut and Subotica in Serbia where they will sign the Declaration on Improving Relations and Resolving Open Issues between Serbia and Croatia, which will include mutual protection of minority rights, the desire to resolve border disputes, the issue of missing persons and succession, and the president's office emphasizes that this will be an expression of the desire of both sides to move forward in the relations between the two countries.

Director of the Belgrade Centre for Foreign Policy, Aleksandra Joksimović, told RTS that "the most important thing is for political tension to subside, so that solutions can be reached through dialogue".

- In radicalization, both sides take firm positions and then there is no compromise. The idea that political will will open the way for dialogue is truly encouraging, said Joksimović.