ZAGREB, 25 Feb 2022 - President Zoran Milanović is attending a virtual emergency meeting of NATO heads of state or government on Friday, convened following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and ahead of the meeting he said that Croatia, as an EU and NATO member, would act within its obligations, Milanović's office said.

He also said that "our role is to be loyal to our allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and to do everything that is possible right now from the humanitarian, human and diplomatic aspect."

"We should also be aware that we are a Western country, a Western culture and civilisation, and that's why we are in NATO," said Milanović.

Earlier, Milanović strongly condemned Russia's aggression against Ukraine and met with the heads of the Croatian army and intelligence services.

ZAGREB, 22 Feb 2022 - President Zoran Milanović on Tuesday spoke with the new leadership of the Croatian Generals Corps (HGZ), an association of retired Croatian Army generals and brigadiers from the Homeland War, with the association's president announcing the establishment of the Council for Strategic Affairs.

Present at the meeting were Marinko Krešić, who was elected as the association's president on 22 January 2022, vice presidents Ljubo Ćesić, Mladen Kruljac and Frane Tomičić, the president's office said in a press release.

The new leadership of the association presented President Milanović with its work plan and activities, including the opening of a war museum in Zagreb, establishing branches in Osijek and  Split, and preparing a lexicon of Croatian generals, which is expected to be published for this year's Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day.

The association said it would continue to work on protecting the reputation and dignity of Croatian Homeland War veterans and commemorating anniversaries.

HGZ president Marinko Krešić said that the association is not involved in daily politics but in preparing expert military and security analyses that can be of use to state institutions. In that context, he announced the establishment of the Council for Strategic Affairs and expert conferences and round tables, the press release said.

The President was accompanied by his defence and national security adviser Dragan Lozančić and special adviser on Homeland War veterans Marijan Mareković.

ZAGREB, 1 Feb 2022 - President Zoran Milanović has met with representatives of the Dutch company Green Trust who presented the Lički Medvjed wind park project, the president's office said on Tuesday.

Green Trust is preparing the project together with the German partner Enercon near Otočac.

This wind park is the biggest such project in Croatia at the moment and the investment is planned at €500 million, Green Trust executives said.

The wind park's capacity will be 425 megawatts and annual production one terawatt-hours of green energy.

Besides creating jobs, the wind park plans to assist local sustainable projects and initiatives, Green Trust representatives said, adding that they plan to set up a fund which will support, with €200,000 a year, sustainable local projects aimed at improving economic, social and ecological conditions.

The construction of the wind park will help to improve the infrastructure in the Otočac area as the implementation of the project requires building 25 km of road and investing in a new high-voltage grid.

ZAGREB, 30 Jan 2022 - President Zoran Milanović on Saturday responded to criticisms from HDZ member of the European Parliament Tomislav Sokol, saying that the prime minister's chief of staff, Zvonimir Frka Petešić, had committed "thievery" and that "every citizen knows that it's dishonesty, greed, plunder."

Sokol said earlier on Saturday that what was happening to Frka Petešić because of the state-owned flat in which he lives in Zagreb was a disgrace.

"We won't run away from the topic so easily by denying reality and switching arguments. That is a criminal offence," Milanović told the press in Sisak. "This is one elaborate impertinent fraud, committed with full awareness of its unlawfulness," he said.

Sokol also said that if anyone thought a crime had been committed, they should report Frka Petešić to the authorities.

Milanović said Frka Petešić should be reported "because there's not a chance that DORH (State Attorney's Office) will do it ex officio."

"Just as it's impossible for DORH to understand that what was happening in the State Assets Ministry was a crime. A whistleblower had to file a criminal report of 37 pages in order to be heard," he added.

The president said he would not report Frka Petešić, but reiterated that he committed a criminal offence and that attempts were being made to portray it "as an oversight."

"It's an elaborate process. Why doesn't he keep his books on Dugi Otok (island) if he lives there?" he said regarding Frka Petešić's claim that he keeps his books in a basement of a warehouse of the Državne Nekretnine state assets management company in Zagreb.

The president recalled that the Državne Nekretnine whistleblower had called out Defence Minister Mario Banožić for protecting one company.

"That company filed for bankruptcy. The state, because someone intervened, did not collect rent and came out the loser. Such favours don't come without a fee because that's a serious favour. If you allowed someone not to pay two or three million in rent, they will probably thank you. The company filed for bankruptcy, the state will get nothing. Who will be held to account?"

The president said that if anyone was embarrassing Croatia, "it's the HDZ."

"Where am I embarrassing it? In Moscow? In Kyiv? In Berlin? But yes, I surely get on some people's nerves. Yesterday I was America's man, today I'm Russia's man, but somehow I believe I'm Croatia's man."

Asked to comment on Zagreb Jewish Community head Ognjen Kraus's statement that he has still not met with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković about banning Ustasha insignia, although a meeting was promised. Milanović said Plenković was stalling Kraus again.

"He'll trick him again. The law won't be changed. Unfortunately, Kraus won't get anything," he added.

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ZAGREB, 29 Jan 2022 - Croatian President Zoran Milanović said on Friday that Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman had officially invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to Croatia, but not on his behalf.

During a visit to Sisak, Milanović was answering questions from the press concerning accusations from the ruling HDZ party that he had pro-Russian views and that his statements caused harm to Croatia's reputation.

"The dumb foreign minister visited Moscow the other day," Milanović said in reference to Grlić Radman's official visit to Russia on 17 January.

"What was he doing in Moscow? I would expect he went to reproach (Russian Foreign Minister Sergey) Lavrov, but no, he goes there and hands in an official invitation for Putin to visit Croatia."

"Is he the president of the state? Does he speak on my behalf? He does not. (PM Andrej) Plenković is not the head of state and cannot play host to Putin," said Milanović.

"So the very same Russians that you threaten and stigmatise you hypocritically invite to Croatia," Milanović said.

The president denied having been the one to speculate that Croatian troops would go to Ukraine.

"No, it was Jutarnji List (daily) that did it, saying on its front page that NATO is looking for 1,500 soldiers" and asking if Croatia would send them, Milanović said.

"And what is that but alarming the public?"

"I never said that NATO had asked for that, I said preemptively that Croatia would not send its troops."

"Croatia will not send troops to Ukraine, and as for Poland and Lithuania, we'll see in the future," Milanović said, adding that HDZ officials did not know what they were saying, did not listen to what was said, and did not read the newspaper "that is the long arm and prosthetic device of the Plenković government."

Croatia was not liberated by NATO

Milanović went on to say that Hanza Media, the company that publishes Jutarnji List, scared the public by saying that 1,500 Croatian troops would go to Ukraine.

"Someone had to tell the public that that is a lie, so I said it."

Speaking of the situation in eastern Europe and possible deployment of troops along Ukraine's eastern border, Milanović said that Croatia would not promise anything to anyone unconditionally.

"That's not credibility, that's lack of intelligence. We'll see what happens. If the situation escalates, our people will not expose themselves to the risk," Milanović said, adding that ultimately, the decision was up to him.

"Either that or the two-thirds majority in the parliament, and that will never happen because people have a brain in their head and care for this country, unlike the HDZ, which only steals, insults and disgraces," said Milanović.

"Croatia has not been asked anything yet, and should not be," he said, repeating that Croatian troops would not be sent to Ukraine.

"If things get more complicated, the army will not go anywhere. They will be in Kosovo and in Croatia. Croatia paid too high a price and nobody helped it significantly in its struggle. Croatia was not liberated by NATO but by Croatian soldiers."

"Croatia does not owe anyone anything to have to gamble and for (Croatians) to be sheep for slaughter," Milanović said, recommending that his critics go to Ukraine.

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ZAGREB, 29 Jan 2022 - President Zoran Milanović's statements about Croatian troops' deployment on the eastern borders of the EU are nonsense that causes great harm to Croatia, European Parliament member Tomislav Sokol of the ruling HDZ party said on Saturday, presenting his party's view.

Asked by reporters if Croatian troops would be deployed on the EU's eastern borders, Sokol said that that was a falsehood made up by Milanović.

"It is being alleged that Croatian soldiers will get killed for somebody. What (Milanović) is saying is a complete fabrication. Such statements cause serious harm to Croatia," Sokol said after a convention of the HDZ women's association "Katarina Zrinski".

Sokol said that Croatia supported de-escalation of the Ukraine crisis and that deployment of Croatian troops had never been mentioned.

Earlier this week, Milanović said that Croatia had nothing to do with the conflict in Ukraine and that if the crisis there escalated, there would be no Croatian soldiers in that scenario.

"Croatia has always been in favour of respect for Ukraine's territorial integrity and for a solution to be found peacefully. This is just one more way to attack the government and harm Croatia's international reputation," said Sokol.

Commenting on Milanović's remark that Plenković was acting like a Ukrainian agent, HDZ MP Mario Kapulica said that he was wondering whose agent Milanović was.

Milanović said in an interview with the RTL broadcaster on Friday that he was neither an enemy of Ukraine nor a friend of Russia, but that EU reports showed that the former Soviet republic was a corrupt country, noting that PM Andrej Plenković was acting like a "Ukrainian agent".

Kapulica said that Milanović could not define Croatia's foreign policy on his own and that the period of adaptation to his style of communication was over.

"This current situation is much more serious and much more dangerous... he wants to make Croatia's position as one having nothing to do with either Europe's or NATO's," Kapulica said.

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ZAGREB, 29 Jan 2022 - Although President Zoran Milanović's statements on Ukraine, EU, NATO, and Russia were intended for his face-off with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković in the home policy, they have done damage to Croatia's credibility in the global affairs, Member of European Parliament, Tonino Picula, says.

The Croatian MEP said in an interview with Hina before his departure for Ukraine at the helm of the European Parliament's delegation, that he could see Milanovć's claims about Ukraine not belonging in NATO and his understanding for Russia's arguments in the Russia-Ukraine crisis "as his statements serving primarily the purpose of his conflicts on the internal policy scene."

The president and the premier are so deep in the conflict that some of the topics that are supposed to reflect a minimum of state unity such as foreign affairs topics have also fallen victim to that conflict, the Croatian MEP told Hina.

Last Tuesday, Milanović said that Croatia would not have a military presence in Ukraine in the event of a Russian invasion, that the events in Ukraine of 2014, known as the Revolution of Dignity, were a military coup, that Europe had not done enough to assist Kyiv, and that the tensions on the Ukraine-Russia border were a consequence of the US home policy. "All that is happening in the antechamber of Russia. One must reach a deal that will take account of the security interests of Russia," said Milanović then.

Picula said that at the moment no one is considering the deployment of NATO's troops in Ukraine.

"I am against the policy that undermines the credibility of Croatia as a member of the European Union and of NATO. Milanović's pro-Russian attitudes undermine that credibility and I also hold that PM Plenković, too, undermines Croatia's credibility primarily through toleration of corruption in his own ranks."

Picula calls on the head of state and the head of government to refrain from spilling their conflicts over to foreign affairs.

"This story should be closed as soon as possible. Croatia needs definitely a higher degree of consent between top leaders for the sake of its credibility abroad," said Picula who was the foreign minister in the coalition government led by Prime Minister Ivica Račan of the SDP party in the early 2000s.

Ukraine crisis exposes weaknesses of EU

While Kyiv and Western countries are bracing themselves for a potential invasion of Russia along its border with Ukraine, where Russian troops are being amassed, Moscow refutes claims that it is preparing attacks on its southwestern neighbour, and insists that the West provides it with guarantees that NATO will not be expanded further eastwards.

On Sunday, the eight-member EP delegation, which includes Picula, is set to fly to Ukraine to meet the Ukrainian leadership.

In the European Parliament, there are different views on the Ukrainian crisis.

Picula said that a majority of the MEPs express solidarity with Ukraine, and support the respect for that country's sovereignty and right to choose which associations it would like to join.

Different approaches of the EU member states to the response to the Russia-Ukraine crisis have an effect on the EU's political strength, he said.

"This crisis also exposes the EU being stuck halfway in its integrations, and this half of unfinished integrations prevents the Union from responding to ad hoc crises, notably when they are external shocks."

The Ukrainian crisis also juxtaposes much wider geopolitical interests, he said adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin would like to avoid EU leaders in efforts to settle the current crisis.

"He wants to talk with the Americans and not with EU leaders, and this is part of his strategy to disintegrate the West."

On the other hand, he does not refrain from holding talks with the economic establishment of the EU and reminding them of the benefits of the Russian-European cooperation, Picula said.

Granting Russia's maximum demands such as that Ukraine should not join the EU or NATO  and that NATO should pull out of eastern countries would mean that the European project is abandoned, said the Croatian MEP.

He says he cannot accept the arguments of Moscow that it could feel threatened in the event of the further eastbound expansion of NATO.

"Although Russia's fears about an invasion from Europe have their roots in the past, also the east of Europe has the historically rooted fears of Russian invasion," Picula told Hina in the interview published on Saturday.

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ZAGREB, 27 Jan 2022 - President Zoran Milanović on Thursday received representatives of the Financial Club, a specialised university student association, who presented their "Simply about the euro" project, the president's office said.

The project was carried out between October 2019 and April 2021 and is the first project dedicated to the introduction of the euro in Croatia, launched by university students to educate their colleagues and the public.

The aim of the project was to explain in a simple and comprehensible way all the doubts concerning the euro, the club's representatives told the president.

The project, which received the Rector's Award, included the publication of expert articles on the effects of joining the euro area, the organisation of panels and other activities.

They told the president the Financial Club was established in 2005 at the Zagreb Faculty of Economics and Business.

Besides the "Simply about the euro" project, the club has launched many other programmes aimed at increasing financial literacy in Croatia, notably among youth, including a seminar on the financial literacy of students in many Zagreb schools.

The president supported their idea and activities, his office said.

The Financial Club has received more than 30 Dean's and Rector's awards for various projects and conferences. In 2013, the Zagreb Stock Exchange awarded them for outstanding contribution to market capital education.

ZAGREB, 27 Jan 2022 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković called out President Zoran Milanović on Thursday for undermining Croatia's reputation and credibility, and said the government distanced itself from his views on the Ukraine situation.

Milanović's statements "are damaging for Croatia's reputation and shameful," he said at a cabinet meeting. "They lead to big disappointment, I'd say indignation, among our partners, from the Unites States to NATO member states, European Union member states, our neighbours."

Plenković said it seemed that every important ambassador would be summoned due to Milanović's statements. "That's bad, it's scandalous, it undermines Croatia's reputation and credibility. It's in total opposition to the Croatian government's principled foreign policy positions, not just on Ukraine but many other countries."

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry yesterday summoned Croatian Ambassador Anica Džamić to protest against Milanović's recent statements, which were applauded in Russia.

Milanović said earlier this week that Croatia would not get involved in the crisis in any way in the event of its escalation and that it would not deploy its troops there. He also said Ukraine did not belong in NATO and that the EU instigated the 2014 "coup d'etat" in Ukraine at which pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown.

Plenković reiterated today that the Croatian government's stand was "to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity, to respect international law principles, to advocate peace, conflict de-escalation, defusing tensions, and to contribute to international community efforts, whether through the various existing formats or through our activities in NATO, the EU or other organisations."

He denied that sending troops to Ukraine was being considered, saying that it was not on the agenda of any international organisation.

ZAGREB, 6 Jan 2022 - President Zoran Milanović on Thursday sent greetings to citizens of the Orthodox faith who will celebrate Christmas on Friday and called on those in power to show more comprehension for the people, particularly in Banija, where state aid is essential after the earthquakes.

The Christmas feast day is always a call to closeness with one's loved ones and family gathering, and it is my sincere wish that you spend it in peace and joy with your loved ones, the president wrote in his note.

Christmas is an opportunity to show mutual understanding and tolerance, particularly in these difficult times for our numerous citizens who were affected by the consequences of the earthquakes, he said.

We have to show solidarity to all those who will not celebrate Christmas in their homes with their families again this year, and human goodness as the most important message of Christmas, Milanović added.

I take this opportunity once again to call on those in power for more understanding for the people, particularly in Banija, for whom state aid is essential, he said.

In the hope that we will continue to build a tolerant Croatian society in which there will be room and opportunities for everyone, and Croatian citizens will feel to be their home, to all Orthodox believers once again, Merry Christmas with the traditional greeting, God's peace, Christ is born!, Milanović's message said.

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