Croatia decides not to recall ambassador from Belgrade

Sanjin Strukic/PIXSELL

The three senior state officials in charge of coordinating Croatia's foreign policy agreed to avoid escalating the diplomatic row with Serbia, meaning Croatia's ambassador will not be recalled from Belgrade, N1 was told by a high-ranking source on Wednesday.

According to the source, the decision has been agreed after Wednesday’s talks between Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and Foreign Minister Marija Pejcinovic-Buric, and after Tuesday’s meeting of Plenkovic, and President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic at the memorial ceremony in Okucani.

However, the source said, Croatia would not prepare some other kind of response to what Zagreb interprets as provocations from Serbia, including Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic’s recent statement that Croatia had sided with Hitler during World War II.

Local media speculated for days what Croatia’s response would be after Serbian government had decided last week to declare Croatia’s Defence Minister a persona non grata in Serbia, in retaliation against Croatia’s decision to do the same for Serbia’s Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin.

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