Defence Minister Ivan Anusic said on Thursday that at the NATO summit in July Croatia would raise its allies' awareness of the hybrid war and activity of Russian allies in Southeast Europe.

At the Washington summit, we want to make all NATO member states aware of Russia's “declared and undeclared allies” in Southeast Europe, Anusic told the press in Brussels after a meeting of NATO defence ministers.

That is “an extremely serious subject” of which neither the public nor the NATO allies are sufficiently aware, he said.

Those activities must be dealt with, communication should be different and steps should be taken to prevent those Russian allies from doing that, he added. “In other words, they can't sit on two chairs.”

Croatia's immediate neighbourhood and further southeast is a shaky region in the security sense, and Russia is continuously supporting that, Anusic said.

Asked if he would accompany the president or the prime minister at the 9-11 July summit, he said the question was who would be minister of defence after Croatia's parliamentary election.

The Brussels meeting discussed preparations for the Washington summit, the continuation of the assistance to Ukraine, and increasing the military budgets of the NATO member states.

Croatia joined initiatives for the procurement and production of ammunition and anti-aircraft missiles, both launched by Great Britain. The initiatives have been signed by 19 NATO member states, Finland and North Macedonia joined only the ammunition initiative, while the United States, Ukraine, Italy and Canada opted for observer status.

“We signed a letter of intent which does not commit us to anything special for now, but the point is to embark on that and it's about a better, faster and cheaper procurement of ammunition, weapons, specifically anti-aircraft missiles,” Anusic said.

It is not just about procuring but also boosting the domestic production of weapons and ammunition, in which Croatia's potential is great, he added.