Serbia’s Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said she was “unpleasantly surprised” with Croatian parliament speaker’s statement that her condemnation of an incident in Belgrade involving an ultra-nationalist was an attempt to play down the scene.

Both Brnabic and Maja Gojkovic, the Serbia’s Parliament speaker, have criticised Vojislav Seselj, a convicted war criminal, for trying to tear up a Croatian flag and for swearing at the Croatian parliamentary delegation on a visit to Belgrade.

Croatian delegation cut short its visit to Belgrade following the incident in the parliament, and upon the return to Zagreb,  Gordan Jandrokovic said that “we could debate about the way they did it, they tried to relativise it.”

Brnabic reiterated that she “unequivocally, directly and in the strongest possible way condemns the behaviour of Vojislav Seselj”, adding the most important thing was that top Serbia’s official condemned the incident, proving that “Serbia is not Seselj’s Serbia.”

She added she was sorry because the Croatian delegation decided to shorten its stay over the incident, saying it was the wrong decision.

Brnabic said she tried to reach her Croatian counterpart Andrej Plenkovic on Wednesday, but that he did not answer her phone call. “That is not a good signal,” she added.

However, she said, her government “remains committed to cooperation with Croatia as well as to the regional cooperation and stability.”