ZAGREB, 2 March 2022 - Croatia cares for stability and security in its immediate environment, promoting peace and good-neighbourly relations with the countries in southeastern Europe on their way to integration into the European Union and NATO, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in the Croatian Parliament on Wednesday.
"We want everyone to refrain from any incidents, any inflammatory rhetoric or anything that might destabilise the otherwise tense situation in at least three countries in our neighbourhood. We can't have two hotspots in Europe at the same time. The chaos that we now have is enough," the prime minister said in response to questions from MPs during discussion on the situation in Ukraine following Russia's military invasion.
MP Bojan Glavašević (Green-Left Bloc) recalled the statement by Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik in which he supported Russian President Vladimir Putin and called Ukrainian defenders "an armed gang".
"As for Dodik and his view on the Ukrainian defenders, I condemn it unequivocally," Plenković said.
Plenković said that Croatia was taking care of the security of the LNG terminal on the northern Adriatic island of Krk, a strategic installation thanks to which Croatia has changed its position on Europe's energy map, and making sure there were sufficient supplies of food and at affordable prices.
Asked by Andreja Marić (Social Democratic Party) about the readiness of the healthcare system for a nuclear threat, the prime minister said that the Health Ministry had formed a task force to take care of all aspects of healthcare in all scenarios.
"As for threats with nuclear weapons, I sincerely hope such a scenario will not happen because it would be the end of the world as we know it," Plenković said.
Mario Kapulica of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union recalled that President Zoran Milanović had recently mocked the possibility of Russian aggression and spoken of extremists in Ukraine.
"This is when we have to give those who were not precise enough a chance to take the right side," Plenković said, agreeing that there had been "misjudgements and poorly worded sentences" and calling for "unity in the time ahead of us".
Condemning the aggression on Ukraine and expressing solidarity with the Ukrainian people, Plenković said that Ukraine was not a country that deserved the concept of neutralisation and being without a democratic leadership and its own armed forces.
The Croatian prime minister rejected the idea that the war in Ukraine was prompted by NATO's expansion. "That's not true," he stressed.
"This is a time when we have to uphold the fundamental principles no matter the cost, even if that may require giving up our way of life. This is a situation in which we must not have any doubts," he added.
Independent MP Karolina Vidović Krišto remarked that the prime minister should have submitted a report on the situation in Croatia and corruption, rather than the war in Ukraine on which he had no influence.
Plenković described her speech as inappropriate, harmful, untrue and defamatory. "We are working, while you are obstructing. We are winning and you are losing," the PM said.
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