Croatia and Serbia prepare agreement on disaster protection

BELGRADE - Croatia and Serbia are preparing an agreement on protection against natural and man-made disasters and on dealing with their aftermath and the agreement will soon be signed, the Belgrade daily newspaper Politika reported on Tuesday.

The text of the agreement was set down on late 2013, and it will be signed by Croatia's Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic, Politika learned from the office of Director of Croatia's National Protection and Rescue Directorate Jadran Perinic.

It is still unknown when the agreement will be signed, because it is awaiting verification from the Foreign Ministry, head of the Serbian Interior Minister Sector for Emergencies Predrag Maric told Politika.

"We have had an excellent cooperation with our Croatian colleagues for years, and our flood defence teams conduct joint exercises," Maric explained.

Officials of the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture and Environment Protection, Croatian Ministry of Agriculture and Hrvatske vode, a Croatian government agency for water management, agreed last weekend that the two countries would fight floods together in the future.

Photo Tanjug, S. Ilic (illustration)