PM: We will either buy originally offered planes or tender will be declared null and void

Commenting on the latest developments regarding the purchase of military jets from Israel, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Tuesday that "the government does not consider the situation in any way burdensome for Croatia."

"Last year we sent special delegations to both Israel and the United States and before the government made its decision, there had been no indications of any problem. The burden of obtaining consent from the United States for the delivery of the planes was taken on by the Israeli side. Croatia did everything in good faith, in line with the rules and tender procedure. At this moment, this is a matter of relations between Israel and the United States," Plenkovic said.

"We will either buy the planes that were originally offered or the tender will be declared null and void, there is no dilemma about it and any other solution .... is out of the question," Plenkovic said.

Asked if this was a stain for Croatia as a small country depending on the will of big powers, Plenkovic said that such an attitude "trivialises this topic."

"I will not allow that to happen. As far as the team who was working on this is concerned, things were done professionally and at the moment the decision was made, there were no indications of any problem," Plenkovic said.

Israel committed itself in writing that it would obtain the US government's approval for the delivery of fighter jets to Croatia and that is exclusively Israel's responsibility, the Croatian Defence Ministry said last Friday and added that if any official notice were to arrive, the public would be informed.

Earlier that day the US Embassy in Zagreb said that it was cooperating with Croatia and Israel on finding an acceptable solution that would enable the confirmation of the agreement on the purchase of Israeli F-16 fighter jets.

The US Embassy said that it had been cooperating with Israel for more than a year regarding the details of the proposed agreement on the purchase of the jets.

The Israeli media have reported that Washington is angry because it believes that by upgrading the electronic systems in the US-made aircraft, Israel has unfairly profited from their sale to Croatia.

The Croatian government in March decided to buy 12, about 30-year-old F-16 Barak fighter jets from Israel. The planes will cost Croatia HRK 2.9 billion over a period of ten years.

PM expects declaration on status of Bosnian Croats to be adopted

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said in the northern Adriatic city of Rijeka on Tuesday that he expected the Croatian parliament to adopt a declaration on the status of Bosnian Croats in order to strengthen the status of the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a constituent people who had to be equal to the country's other two constituent peoples.

Asked if the parliamentary declaration on the status of Bosnian Croats would be adopted and whether it would change anything, Plenkovic said the document would most definitely be adopted.

This topic is important in present circumstances, he said, underlining that Bosnian Croats were a constituent people and must be equal to the other two peoples in the country.

"Ignoring what was agreed in Dayton is neither good nor healthy for democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina and our message is clear -- no EU member state is investing more effort than Croatia in stepping up the process of Bosnia's accession to the bloc. I can even say that none of the previous Croatian governments had done more than the incumbent government to help that process," Plenkovic said.

Text: Hina

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