Serbo-Croatian Relations
Neither Croatia nor Serbia have political, economic, ethnic, or any other reasons to worsen mutual relations. But in both Serbia and Croatia, rants against the neighbor have become a tried and true political tactic to secure the votes of the nationalist portion of the electorate.
There are plenty of recurring themes that have been heard in the past 20 years, like disputes on the interpretation of the war in Yugoslavia, the fate of missing persons, or the still controversial border along the Danube River. And local media outlets are just waiting for fodder. Property restitution, reciprocal property protection, and border demarcation are the key sticking points in the bilateral relationship.
In 2015, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic contributed to the antagonism by saying: "We respect you Croats as neighbors, but we do not love you. We love you as much as we love Papua New Guinea." It didn't take long for the other side to respond. Croatian Defense Minister Ante Kotromanovic recalled that the Serbian foreign minister and Prime Minister Vucic had advocated and even applauded the war in the nineties. "Serbia thinks it is able to join the EU and continue to cooperate with Russia? Fat chance!" said the Croatian minister.
Serbian officials reacted fiercely to the 18 November 2008 ruling by the ICJ that claimed jurisdiction in Croatia's case against Serbia (REF A). Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic told reporters that Croatia had not "responded adequately to the hand of reconciliation Serbia had offered on several occasions, and to our efforts to put the past behind us and turn to a European future." The Serbian government, therefore, on November 20 formally approved a countersuit at the ICJ in which the Court would be asked to rule on whether Croatia committed ethnic cleansing and war crimes during Operation Storm in 1995. Operation Storm was the offensive launched by Croatian forces in August 1995 which successfully re-took separatist Serb regions in Croatia. Jeremic said Serbia would present evidence on "all events of the 20th Century, including World War II" and told Politika on November 20 that Serbia would not settle the countersuit out of court.
Since May 2008 high-level Serbian officials had made inflammatory comments both publicly and privately. In May Jeremic publicly stated that Croatia was a genocidal state, and in September President Boris Tadic reportedly threatened Croatian Prime Minister Sanader that Serbia could cause problems in Croatia with its minority Serb community. After the October announcement that The Hague would rule on Croatia's case, Jeremic and Croatian President Stjepan Mesic exchanged barbs over which side bore more responsibility for stagnant relations. President Tadic on November 16 told Serbian media that he was concerned that Croatia felt no responsibility toward Serbian war victims and that chants of "Kill the Serbs" at Croatian sports events reflected an uncivilized message that should be condemned by Europe.
By late 2015 people were talking about an arms race in the Balkans. Croatia would like to buy US artillery systems, while Serbia hasdput Russian missile defense systems on its wish list. Security experts did not rule out the possibility of the US actually arming Croatia as a tactic to motivate NATO skeptic and pro-Russian Serbia to reconsider Euro-Atlantic integration. The so-called arms race between the former war opponents Croatia and Serbia is farcical, says Ljubodrag Stojadinovic, a military analyst for "Politika", a daily Belgrade-based newspaper. "Verbal projectiles are being fired, although the possibility of a real armed conflict is fairly low. This is mainly a sort of psychological Balkan war".
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