The December 3 talks in Kyiv between President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine and President Stjepan Mesi л c of Croatia have laid a good basis for future cooperation, said Pres. Kuchma after the talks. Among the cornerstones laid by both sides is the common commitment to expand economic cooperation, especially in metallurgy, chemicals, and shipbuilding. Ukraine and Croatia have also agreed to redouble their efforts to clear the Danube waterway, with Croatia also showing interest in Ukraine’s experience of participation in NATO’s Partnership For Peace Program. According to him, both presidents have decided to expand cooperation on oil transit using the Druzhba oil pipeline and in shipping Caspian oil to Odesa and then pumping it via the newly built Odesa-Brody oil pipeline to Western Europe. As Croatia’s president has earlier declared, using the existing Adria oil pipeline to transit the Russian oil via Ukraine could considerably reduce the price of oil.
Without going into detail, Pres. Mesi л c noted that the talks also focused on the possible supplies of Ukrainian arms to Croatia, with Zagreb eternally and openly interested in purchasing Ukrainian arms and new deliveries of An-70 airplanes.
Apart from this, both sides have agreed to liberalize the visa regime between the countries as the existing border crossing procedure hinders the expansion of tourism and business ties, with numerous cases of unsolicited harassment of Ukrainians by Croatian border officials. Croatia still continues to view Ukraine as a high-risk country, according to one version, because of the absence of any agreement of readmission. Incidentally, Croatia continues to have a no-visa regime with Russia and in the not distant past Ukrainians going to Croatia could buy entry visas at the border.
It is worth recalling that, according to some analysts, by expanding its links with Croatia Ukraine will gain a firmer foothold in the Balkans. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s relationship with Croatia, so warm in the early nineties, has been increasingly showing signs of frosting over in recent years.
