The summit of Ukraine and Southeast Europe in Dubrovnik on Wednesday was a show for Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, who should not have been invited there, Croatian President Zoran Milanović said in Krakow. He praised the President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović, saying that he is "a different kind of politician".
"When I heard that Vučić was invited to Dubrovnik, I laughed," said Milanović, who participated today in the summit of the Araiolos group, presidents of European Union countries without executive powers, reports Index.hr.
"I spoke with Vučić at lunch in Tivat and when I heard that he was invited to Dubrovnik, I laughed to myself and said - this will not end well," Milanović told reporters, referring to the meeting of the Brdo-Brioni Process in Tivat.
A day later, a meeting of the countries of Southeast Europe and Ukraine was held in Dubrovnik, hosted by Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenski. At the summit, the Dubrovnik Declaration was accepted, in which the strong support of the countries of Southeast Europe for Ukraine was expressed.
Although it was previously announced that Serbia would be represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the President of Serbia still came to the meeting in Dubrovnik.
Milanović said that Vučić is the president of a country that still has direct ties with Moscow, does not impose sanctions on it and has its own path.
"But then - how do you expect that Vučić to agree with the declaration that Plenković and his associates unintelligently worded and where sanctions against Russia are mentioned. Then why did you call Vučić", asked Milanović, adding that "you had to expect that he would way to grind".
"Achieve it so that it doesn't spoil your 'show' - and it was Vučić's 'show' in the end - then you either adapt the content and intonation to that guest or, smarter, don't invite him".
In Dubrovnik, before the joint press conference of Plenković and Zelenski, Vučić gave a statement to the media in which he emphasized that Serbia managed to change several important points of the Dubrovnik Declaration, among other things, that it does not say that the signatory countries are obliged, but are encouraged to comply with EU measures.
Vučić stated in Dubrovnik, speaking about the aggression in the Homeland War, that "Serbia sees things one hundred percent differently or completely differently compared to Croatia".
Milanović says that this too could have been foreseen.
"If you call him, you know that he will intervene in the issue of the destruction of Dubrovnik", emphasized Milanović.
The President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović, who also participated in the Dubrovnik summit, had a different message.
X wrote online that the city was a victim of tragic war events, which "unfortunately" was contributed to by the politics of Montenegro at the time.
"Because Milatović is a different kind of politician. The man is realistic," said Milanović.
However, the Croatian president was criticized for inviting the "Chetnik duke" Andrija Mandić, the initiator of the Montenegrin resolution on Jasenovac, to come to Croatia. This is how his sentence was interpreted that Mandić, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksa Bečić and the leader of the Democratic People's Party Milan Knežević should not have been declared undesirable in Croatia.
Milanović replied that his message in Tivat, which was heard by everyone "who understands the Croatian language, who knows letters, phonemes, morphemes and who can read a sentence and listen if they have ears" was that it should not have been declared undesirable "if it had been minds on the side of Montenegro".
"Because there was no sense, it came to that. People caused themselves to become persona non grata. I think that we will not harm them, but only raise their rating among their voters in Montenegro," he emphasized.
When asked if he himself should have been invited to Dubrovnik, after Plenković said that according to protocol, the prime minister and the president are usually not at the same events, Milanović said that "it was his (Plenković's) decision" and that to the issue of protocol "technically right, but that all his other motives are dirty".
When asked if he would have come if he had been invited, he said: "Probably they would have agreed not to come."
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