Vucic: Serbia will not recall ambassador from Croatia

BRATISLAVA - Serbia will not recall its ambassador from Croatia nor send any negative signal to Croatia, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said late Wednesday.

"I think that Serbia and Croatia need to cooperate far better," Vucic told Radio-Television of Serbia in Bratislava.

The prime minister also said he will phone Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic after his visit to Slovakia, in order to discuss Wednesday's incident caused by leader of extra-parliamentary Serbian Radical Party Vojislav Seselj, who set fire to a Croatian flag in front of the Palace of Justice, Belgrade's main courthouse.

Croatia handed a protest note to the Serbian embassy in the capital Zagreb and said it is recalling its own ambassador from Serbia for consultations.

Vucic said Serbia did not recall its ambassador from Zagreb even when more serious incidents took place, for example when the entire stadium in Zagreb shouted 'For the homeland ready' (the call-and-response salute widely associated with Croatian Nazis who committed genocide against Serbs).

"For our part, we will stop every kind of rhetoric that continues to stir up bad passion, but I will ask Prime Minister Milanovic to make the Croatian government show some more respect to Serbia," Vucic said.

Photo Tanjug, N. Jovanovic (archive)