The Resolution on Jasenovac, adopted by the Montenegrin parliament, deliberately promotes a policy of division within that country and is instrumentalised by "another country in the region", Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Saturday.

The 81-seat Montenegrin parliament on Friday passed the resolution on the genocide in the Jasenovac, Dachau and Mauthausen concentration camps by votes of the 41 members of the ruling coalition. The opposition MPs walked out before the vote saying that in this way the Serbian government was abusing its influence in Montenegro.

Speaking to the press on the sidelines of the Dubrovnik Forum on Saturday, Plenkovic said that the resolution promotes “a deliberate policy of division within Montenegro” and sends “an even worse message with regard to mutual respect and the desire for good-neighbourly relations.”

He said that the governing majority in Podgorica passed the resolution “without ever dealing with the subject” and in response to the UN resolution on the genocide at Srebrenica, under the instrumentalisation of “another country in the region”.

Plenkovic recalled that Dubrovnik had endured great suffering during the aggression of the Slobodan Milosevic regime, “in which unfortunately Montenegro also took part.”

The PM announced that Croatia would take the measures it considered appropriate for such moves of “instrumentalisation of the parliamentary majority” aimed at disrupting relations between Zagreb and Podgorica.

“Instead of dealing with their own problems and their own issues, including the prosecution of war crimes from (the 1990s), they are dealing with a subject in which they have shown no interest for the last eight decades,” Plenković noted, adding that those aspiring for EU membership must take account of good neighborly relations and mutual respect.