ZAGREB, 28 April 2022 - Croatia supports Finland's and Sweden's potential NATO membership, which would strengthen Croatia's security and defence, Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said on Thursday.
"We feel that the NATO membership of Finland and Sweden will only strengthen our security and our defence," he told the press at Zagreb airport after talks with his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto, adding that all NATO member states have the same stand on that.
Grlić Radman said that his Finnish counterpart called him two days ago and his Swedish counterpart yesterday, and that he told them he supported "their future application as an important contribution to transatlantic security."
Croatian President Zoran Milanović has said that the Croatian parliament should not ratify the NATO accession of Finland and Sweden until the election law in Bosnia and Herzegovina is changed so that the more numerous Bosniaks do not elect the Croatian member of the Presidency and delegates to the House of Peoples.
According to him, Croatia must use this "historic" chance to fight for BiH Croats' rights and also solve a security issue.
Grlić Radman said today that by joining NATO, Croatia agreed to the open-door policy which envisaged that all countries that met the standards could join if they wanted to.
Szijjarto said Finland and Sweden had not yet applied for membership, but that Hungary would have a positive view if they did.
The two ministers discussed the situation in BiH, with Szijjarto saying that Hungary supported Croatia's position that the Presidency's Croat member must be elected by Croats.
He said that for BiH's stability, it was necessary to respect the will of all three constituent peoples and that Hungary did not support the political campaign and sanctions against the Presidency's Serb member Milorad Dodik.
Grlić Radman said national minorities were a strong link in Hungarian-Croatian relations and that the model of the protection of their rights in the two countries was exemplary.
Speaking of the energy situation in the wake of Russia's aggression on Ukraine, Szijjarto said energy supply was not a philosophical but a physical issue and that Hungary would pay Russian gas so that it reached Hungary.
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