Minister Kotromanović met senior UN officials in New York

Minister Kotromanović met with the Assistant Secretary for Human Rights and Chief of the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights in New York, Ph.D. Ivan Šimonović, and with the Special Adviser and UN Assistant Secretary General for the Development of Civil Capacities, Sarah Cliff. The discussion was on civilian capacities in the UN peacekeeping missions and operations and on the role and contribution of the Croatian defence system to this initiative. The UN has recently launched a project called CAPMATCH within which civil mechanisms of member states provide support to post-conflict and transition countries in their reconstruction of the institutional, social and economic development and peace building. The Republic of Croatia joined the CAPMATCH in August 2012, in the area of justice, veterans and finance, and the Ministry of Defence is also interested in engaging into this initiative and in extending its support to the development of civilian capacity, which is now reduced mainly to the training of civil servants of other ministries for peace support operations.

Minister Kotromanović also met with the UN Undersecretary for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous, with an emphasis on the Croatian involvement in international missions and UN operations in which it has been present since 1999. The focus was on the Croatian participation in the UNDOF peacekeeping mission on the Golan Heights and on the challenges that mission has been facing given the current Syrian crisis. The UNDOF peacekeeping mission currently involve 95 members of the Croatian Armed Forces, and one CAF officer in neighbouring UNIFIL mission in Lebanon, by which Croatia is directly interested in the security situation in the Middle East.

During his stay in New York, Minister Kotromanović attended the Holy Mass in St. Cyril and Methodius Church in Manhattan, after which he met representatives of the Croatian community.

During his official visit to the United States, Minister Kotromanović will also meet the U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panneta in Washington.