ZAGREB, Oct 14, 2020 - Sixteen small border crossings between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina that have been closed since April in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus will be reopened on Thursday, Bosnia and Herzegovina's border police said on Wednesday.

After an agreement was reached between the two countries, small border crossings will be reopened to facilitate crossings for children who attend schools in Croatia and business and agricultural activities in cross-border regions.

"Border crossings will be opened to traffic as of 15 October 2020. Crossing the border will be conducted in accordance with the agreement and valid legislative regulations," Bosnia's border police informed.

Residents in the area around Tomislavgrad, Capljina and Ljubuski have protested on several occasions over the past month and called for small border crossings to be reopened so that their children attending schools in Croatia can cross the border more easily.

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ZAGREB, Sept 14, 2020  - Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said during a visit to Mostar, south Bosnia and Herzegovina on Monday that Croatia is the advocate of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croats' rights and that he expected the Dayton Peace Accords would be respected and that Croats would no longer be outvoted.

"As before, we will strongly support Bosnia and Herzegovina, develop cooperation with all three constituent peoples, with all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and be the country that supports Bosnia and Herzegovina on its way to the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation," Plenkovic told a press conference following a meeting with Dragan Covic, the leader of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH).

Plenkovic had arrived for the inauguration of Petar Palic as the new Bishop of Mostar-Duvno.

Asked about announcements by leading Bosniak officials that they would outvote Croats in the 2022 elections and impose lower-level officials as well, and not only the member of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Presidency, Zeljko Komsic, Plenkovic said that it was important to respect the Dayton/Paris Peace Agreement.

He said he expected that the leading Bosnian Croat party, the HDZ BiH, and the leading Bosniak party, the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), would reach an agreement on amendments to the Elections Act to put an end to the practice of outvoting Croats.

HDZ BiH leader Covic said that he had earlier warned SDA leader Bakir)Izetbegovic that the imposition of political representatives had caused problems in the past.

Commenting on the situation in South-East Europe after the election in Montenegro and the talks between Serbia and Kosovo, Plenkovic underscored that Croatia was committed to stability in all neighboring countries.

"What is important to Croatia is that there is stability, that there is peace and that tension is reduced, and that trade flows are stabilized. In all this, we take into account the Croatian minority and Croats in Serbia. We are sorry that due to division between the two Croatian parties the electoral threshold in Montenegro was not passed to obtain a seat in the parliament, a representative of the Croatian ethnic minority," Plenkovic said.

After talking with the HDZ BiH leader, Plenkovic met with Ratko Peric, the outgoing Bishop of Mostar-Duvno, and his successor, Petar Palic.

A diocesan cultural center opened in Mostar on Sunday, the construction of which was also financed by the Croatian government.

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The public institution Aquatika in Karlovac and Una National Park in Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina signed an agreement to cooperate on tourism, promotion, scientific work and monitoring, among other projects, reports HRTurizam on February 2, 2019. 

This cooperation is significant as it finally presents a positive example of synergy and the importance of connecting two tourist destinations from two neighboring states, Croatia and Bosnia.

“We believe that we will succeed in increasing the number of visits and exchanging visitors through various joint activities. We will invite our visitors to the National Park, and they will present Aquatika to their visitors,” said the Director of Aquatika, Margarita Maruškić Kulaš, before adding: "Within this Agreement, we will arrange joint promotion and cooperation on the various project activities of both institutions. In this cooperation, the most important three points are joint projects in the field of promotion, science and research, and especially the fish species that inhabit Una, and promotion on the development of tourism in both regions. I believe that together we will realize more and more visits ", emphasized Marusic Kulaš.

The Una river runs in Croatia and is a natural border between BiH and Croatia. The Una National Park desires to develop a unique continental riviera that would stretch across the entire river, regardless of the state border.

"We can say that this natural sequence has connected our regions since ancient times, especially Bihać and Bosanska Krajina with Banja and Kordun, namely Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Una River which is our common resource, our common river, and largely the border river. However, we believe that rivers connect and must connect people and this is our contribution to show that we are ready to cooperate but also to connect in different areas, especially when it comes to nature conservation and, of course, creating an environment for sustainable development,” Mulić said.

But this not the first time Aquatika has shown their willingness to cooperate with others. Last year, they collaborated with three public institutions in Karlovac County in the area of tourism: the Barać Caves, Ivana's House of Fairy Tales in Ogulin, and Plitvice Lakes National Park. 

Synergy is crucial for tourism and tourist destinations - and if there is no synergy and cooperation, there is no quality tourist product. What is most important in this story is that the motive for travel is not accommodation, but quality, varied and authentic content.

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