The Croatian President's Office on Tuesday denied media reports that President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic had held a bilateral meeting with Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic on the margins of the UN General Assembly session in New York, saying that "a courtesy encounter and greeting in the corridor" could not be called a bilateral meeting.

According to a statement by the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dacic had several brief meetings with senior officials from the region and the world ahead of the 74th UN General Assembly session in New York, including one with Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic.

Grabar-Kitarovic’s Office said that she had had many bilateral meetings with statesmen, including US Vice President Mike Pence and Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, as well as with representatives of Google and the World Jewish Organisation, but not with Dacic. “To describe a courtesy encounter and greeting in the corridor as a bilateral meeting would be impolite and incorrect,” her office said in a statement.