Croatia will be represented at the NATO summit in Vilnius by two delegations, one headed by President Zoran Milanovic and the other led by Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic-Radman and Defence Minister Mario Banozic, reflecting the rift between the President's Office and the government.

Milanovic and his delegation will attend the summit on Tuesday and Wednesday separately from the government delegation led by the two ministers, who will attend ministerial meetings.

Both delegations will visit the Croatian contingent serving with NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence mission in Lithuania, but not at the same time. The ministers are due to visit the Rukla base, where 180 Croatian troops are stationed, on Tuesday, while the president will do so on Wednesday, after the summit.

The contingent, deployed for a six-month rotating tour of duty in late January, was seen off separately by the president and the defence minister.

Speaking at a press conference last week, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said that Milanovic excluded Minister Radman from the delegation to the NATO summit.

“Radman and Banozic are preparing for the NATO summit on 11 and 12 July. Milanovic has sent a letter excluding Minister Radman from the delegation. Imagine how low he can go to exclude a minister from the delegation. It has been agreed that the minister will be going with his delegation and the president with his,” the prime minister said.