Croatia's President, Zoran Milanovic, said on Monday that the final text of the statement released after a Nato's summit in Brussels "incorporated a reference" to the 1995 Dayton peace accords, after Croatia kept insisting for six days that the agreement should be mentioned, state agency Hina reported.

On Sunday, Milanovic, who attended the summit, made his approval of the final document conditional on making mention of the Dayton accords that define Bosnia and Herzegovina as the state of the three constituent peoples: Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats – as well as other citizens.

Milanovic today explained that after Croatia’s request that the final communique should make a reference to the Dayton agreement as the basis for the functioning of Bosnia and Herzegovina had been ignored for six days, the Croatian side was forced to say on Sunday that “we would oppose the consensus.”

Milanovic told the press today while coming to the summit meeting that on Sunday Nato’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg had called him and the things were “settled in half a minute.”

“However, it took six days until we made sure that that the communique’s Bosnia and Herzegovina segment would make mention of the Dayton peace accords. This is small thing for this summit, just a footnote, and a great thing for us,” Milanovic said.

“All other things in the whole text of the 50-page final declaration have been acceptable for me as the head of the Croatian delegation,” he added.

Milanovic does not believe that he will manage to hold a meeting with US President Joe Biden, Hina reported.

“I think he has more important things to do,” Milanovic said.

Croatia had insisted on the three points in the declaration: the Dayton peace agreement, the constituent peoples, and the election reform of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“Eventually, there will be no mention of the constituent peoples, however it is covered by making reference to the Dayton agreement that defines Bosnia and Herzegovina as the state of the Bosniaks, the Serbs and the Croats and other citizens,” Hina said.

Nato’s declaration in 2004 ceased making mention of the Dayton agreement, and since then the Dayton accords have not been mentioned “by inertia,” Hina said.

However, “Croatia has raised the issue since the Bosniak representatives started trying to eliminate the concept of the constituent peoples,” state agency Hina explained.