Presidents: Bilateral negotiations on the border on the Danube for another two years, then court

Croatia and Serbia will attempt to resolve the border on the Danube bilaterally over the next two years, and if they fail, they will go to an international court or arbitration, the presidents of Croatia and Serbia said on Monday in Zagreb.

“Our recommendation to the governments is to continue negotiating bilaterally for the next two years. If we do not reach an agreement on border issues during that period, then we should agree to go before an international judicial body,” said President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.

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Her Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vučić added that the two countries have different starting positions, with Croatia referring to the cadastre and Serbia to a law it considers a stronger legal act.

“We will try to resolve this bilaterally over the next two years; if that is not possible, we will go before judicial arbitration bodies, whose final ruling will be accepted by both sides.”

On the Danube, 136 out of 262 kilometers of the border between Croatia and Serbia are in dispute.

Embargo on insults

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić stated on Friday in Zagreb that he ordered his associates in Belgrade not to insult Croatia in the next 100 days, so as not to complicate the resolution of numerous open issues between the two countries.

“In the next 100 days, we will try to change the atmosphere….. All state officials will be obliged not to insult not only Croatian officials but to behave responsibly and do everything in their power to have the best possible relations,” Vučić said at a joint press conference with Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.

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He added that Serbs believe that Croatia has insulted Serbia more, while Croats probably think the opposite.

“In any case, this will be the obligation of all representatives of Serbian politics in the coming period, regardless of whether Croatian politicians and the government respond positively or not,” Vučić emphasized.

Documents and missing persons

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić returned documents from Dvor na Uni to Croatia on Monday that were taken to Serbia after Operation Storm in 1995. Vučić, who arrived for a visit to Zagreb, brought with him birth, death, and marriage records from that municipality with a majority Serbian population in Banovina.

Croatia has been demanding the return of cultural treasures, looted and taken from Croatia after Operation Storm, which liberated Croatian territories under the control of local Serbs in the summer of 1995.

Vučić also stated that he provided Croatian authorities with information about three missing persons from the war in the 1990s in Croatia.

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“We brought three names for which we know where they perished,” Vučić said at a joint press conference with Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.

He did not provide details about the identity, place of death, and nationality of those individuals.

The Serbian president previously stated that he would do everything he could to help find the missing persons.