Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Thursday it was "ridiculous" that President Zoran Milanovic invited him to convene the National Security Council because with his statements he was "insulting those who should help" and sabotaging all the government was doing for the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Milanovic on Thursday called on Plenkovic to convene the National Security Council over developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The prime minister said that the president had insulted the international High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, about 20 times, as well as “half of our neighbours” and many of Croatia’s international partners.

“The results of such policy, where you insult those who should help protect the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, are quite brilliant,” Plenkovic said sarcastically. “Everything we did, he undermined with his statements. If we pursued foreign policy the way he does, I’m afraid there would be no euro, no Schengen, no OECD,” he added.

He reiterated that Schmidt’s decision on technical amendments to the electoral law was insufficient, saying that the High Representative should not have abandoned the previously announced package that would have ensured post-election equality for the Croats.

Plenkovic again condemned the statement by the leader of the predominantly Bosniak Party of Democratic Action, Bakir Izetbegovic, in which he referred to the strength of the Bosniak military and the purchase of drones.

“We will have to substitute the young people who are leaving the country with high technologies and robotics. The armed forces will also have to be supported by drones and flying robots,” Izetbegovic told a party conference.

Plenkovic said that this statement was “catastrophic” and could not be interpreted in any other way but as preparations for a war.

“He is not rattling his sabre, but he is using a rhetoric that is absolutely unacceptable,” Plenkovic said, adding that such statements lead to mistrust, distancing, and destabilisation.