Addressing the United National General Assembly on Wednesday, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic called on world leaders to act together, not just in crisis management situations but in spreading hope and optimism.
“The United Nations is a place where we must show our willingness to act together,” Grabar-Kitarovic said in her address to the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly in New York.
“Our adversaries are many: poverty, hunger, terrorism, extremism and instability, lack of education, gender inequality and exclusion of women in many societies, environmental hazards, endangered security and trampled human dignity,” she said, adding that world leaders should think of themselves “as a team that needs to work together, to take advantage of our strengths and to address our weaknesses in order to make our world a better place and to inspire excellence globally.”
She confirmed Croatia’s strong support for further EU enlargement to Southeast Europe.
“Resolving all outstanding legacies of war, while constructively engaging in regional cooperation and good neighbourly relations is, of course, essential,” she said.
She spoke about the state of affairs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, warning about a “risk of legal uncertainty and political and institutional instability” following the October elections.
The risk comes from “the failure to amend the electoral framework so that it fully respects the rights and equality of the three constituent peoples – Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs – in line with the Constitutional Court decision on the legitimate and proportionate representation of constituent peoples at all levels of government, including the Presidency,” she said.
Bosnia's state-level Election Law has been a burning issue since two years ago when the Constitutional Court ruled that some of its provisions were violating the state Constitution.
Grabar-Kitarovic also spoke about the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue.
“We should be cautious and extremely careful when it comes to proposals with potential regional implications, most notably the ideas regarding territorial exchanges,” she said, adding that could potentially “reopen the Pandora’s box of potential new territorial claims, that would provoke serious instability and security threats.”
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