Croatia's Defence Minister Mario Banozic on Tuesday met in Sarajevo with his counterpart Sifet Podzic, telling a news conference afterwards that the two ministries and armies had been cooperating excellently for years.

Banozic recalled that more than 600 BiH officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers had attended the “Franjo Tudjman” military academy in Zagreb and that that type of cooperation would continue.

He further recalled that the two ministries also had good cooperation in implementing technical agreements on crisis management, noting that Croatia's Air Force was actively involved in putting out wildfires in Herzegovina again last summer.

“BiH can always count on us in such situations,” said Banozic, adding that Croatia strongly supports its neighbour on its European and Euro-Atlantic journey.

BiH can also count on the transfer of the know-how that Croatia has gained through the process of modernising its armed forces, the minister said.

BiH's armed forces are currently under strong political pressure because the Serb member of the BiH Presidency, Milorad Dodik, is pushing for their disbandment and is threatening to establish a separate Serb entity army.

Minister Podzic said that despite that, the country's armed forces are continuing to attend to their duties and are marking their 16th anniversary in full capacity.

He thanked Croatia for its support of BiH's armed forces.

“We cooperate sincerely and very well,” said Podzic, especially thanking Croatia for its help in fighting wildfires in BiH, when that country's helicopters could not attend to that task because Dodik refused to approve their engagement.

Banozic did not wish to answer questions about his current dispute with the Croatian Armed Forces Chief-of-Staff, Admiral Robert Hranj.

“That's an internal matter and let's leave that for when I return home,” Banozic told reporters in Sarajevo.