The United States and Croatia have good and friendly relations which should be bolstered by more frequent contacts, Croatia's Foreign Minister Marija Pejcinovic-Buric said after meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington on Wednesday. She also used the occasion to warn of the dangers of potential territory swaps in the region.

The meeting was part of Pejcinovic-Buric’s two-day official visit to the United States on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was the first visit of a Croatian foreign minister to the US since March 2012, when former Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic met with the then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Pejcinovic-Buric said after the meeting that she discussed with Pompeo the two countries’ bilateral relations, primarily in terms of economy, agreements aimed at improving economic cooperation, the need to begin talks on forging a double taxation agreement, as well as lifting visa requirements for Croatians travelling to the United States.

“These issues are important for Croatian citizens, as well as for investments and trade between Croatia and the US,” Pejcinovic-Buric told reporters after the meeting.

She described Croatian-US relations as good and friendly, adding that they had been so for many years, but noted that it was important to have “direct communication as often as possible.”

Speaking on Serbia and Kosovo and the issue of the potential changes to their mutual border, on which the State Department had expressed a softer view recently, Pejcinovic-Buric said she expressed concern about possible territorial swaps because “we believe that this is not the principle based on which European countries have been functioning after World War II, and it would not be good to create divisions along ethnic lines, because any divisions of that kind and territorial swaps could lead to destabilisation, and possibly replicate in other countries in the region and beyond.”

She said that the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo was very important for Croatia, and that it was important to reach an agreement “that would not jeopardise security in countries of the region, or have wider implications.”

Also discussed was the current state of affairs in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the run-up to the country’s general elections on October 7, and the status of ethnic Croats in Bosnia.

“We have warned that these elections are very important, and that it is essential that the election results are applied legitimately,” Pejcinovic-Buric said.

Pejcinovic-Buric is also scheduled to meet with Mira Ricardel, deputy national security adviser to President Trump; Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Europe; and David Joyce and Nanette Barragan, co-chairs of the Croatian Caucus in the House of Representatives.

She is also due to deliver a talk, titled Reinforcing Our Transatlantic Alliance: Croatia’s Contributions and Ideas, organised by the influential conservative think tank Heritage Foundation.

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