Croatia will facilitate the transit of grain from Ukraine and offered to do so last year, Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic-Radman said on Wednesday.

Last year already, Croatia offered to help the transit of grain from Ukraine through the Port of Rijeka, “primarily to those countries where it is necessary, namely African countries”, Grlic-Radman said in an interview with the Croatian Radio.

Poland, Slovakia and Hungary banned the import of Ukrainian grain, and Ukraine and Poland managed to agree on the unblocking of Ukrainian grain transit as of Friday.

Croatia will “enable the transit of grain”, and the import of Ukrainian grain will be discussed at the “appropriate level”, Grlic-Radman said when asked if Croatia would also ban imports.

Speaking about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the minister said Croatia “is very actively helping Ukraine” and that our allies and partners recognise this.

He believes that arguments in the Croatian Parliament regarding military aid to Kyiv were unnecessary. “We have 54 MPs who voted against military aid for training Ukrainian soldiers. It was a fantastic opportunity for Croatia to show the world its knowledge,” he said.

Election of new head of NATO

The mandate of the incumbent head of NATO Jens Stoltenberg will soon expire, and the name of his successor should be known by a NATO summit in July.

The Swedish media mentioned Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic as one of the potential candidates for the new Secretary-General of NATO.

Grlic-Radman said that “this only speaks of the reputation that Andrej Plenkovic enjoys and how much Croatia is appreciated in the world through Andrej Plenkovic”.

Security of the Western Balkans

The minister told Croatian Radio that Croatia has achieved the most important foreign policy goals and that “the security of the Western Balkans, and above all Bosnia and Herzegovina,” remains an objective.

“BiH needs someone who will help it, and that is certainly Croatia as a member of the European Union,” said the minister.

Grlic-Radman emphasised that Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina are not a minority, as is sometimes misinterpreted in the world. “No matter how many Croats there are in Bosnia and Herzegovina, they must be guaranteed equal political participation as the other peoples,” he said.

In June, a joint session of the Croatian government and the BiH Council of Ministers will be held in Zagreb.

When asked about the future of relations between Serbia and Kosovo, Grlic-Radman said that “a good relationship” between these countries is “in the interest of Croatia”.

Croatia welcomed an annex to the agreement between Belgrade and Priština on the normalization of mutual relations which was accepted in Ohrid in March. “That is certainly one way forward,” Grlic-Radman added.

He reiterated that Croatia was among the first to recognise the independence of Kosovo and that he advocates that Kosovo be recognised by the remaining five EU members that have not done it yet – Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.

Grlic-Radman also commented on the election of Jakov Milatovic as Montenegrin president. He repeated that Croatia welcomed this and said that “his actions will be proof of his pro-European authenticity”.