Croatia external relations briefing: Mike Pompeo's Visit to Croatia: What Was Behind It? - China-CEE Institute

ISSN: 2560-1601

                                                                                       Vol. 33, No. 4 (HR)

                                                                                             October 2020

                               Croatia external relations briefing:
            Mike Pompeo’s Visit to Croatia: What Was Behind It?
                                           Valentino Petrović

                                                                1052 Budapest Petőfi Sándor utca 11.

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Kiadó: Kína-KKE Intézet Nonprofit Kft.
                                                                office@china-cee.eu
Szerkesztésért felelős személy: Chen Xin
Kiadásért felelős személy: Huang Ping                           china-cee.eu

2017/01

Mike Pompeo’s Visit to Croatia: What Was Behind It?

     Summary

     US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, recently payed a visit to Croatia during his second
tour around Central and Eastern European countries. He previously visited Slovenia, Austria,
Czech Republic and Poland, and after it was announced that his next stop will be Croatia, many
hailed this as an important diplomatic leap forward when it comes to bilateral relations
between the United States and Croatia. However, some were pretty much direct and without
any hesitation gave their (un)popular opinion on what was truly behind Pompeo’s arrival.

     Introduction

     Economic cooperation, energy security with regards to LNG terminal on the island of
Krk, inclusion of Croatia to US Visa Waiver Program, double tax convention, fighter jets,
geopolitical situation in the Western Balkan region. These were the topics discussed during a
one-day visit of US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, to Croatia on 2nd October, held in coastal
city of Dubrovnik, with Croatian Prime Minister, Andrej Plenković, and Minister of Foreign
and European Affairs, Goran Grlić-Radman. This year Pompeo already had a Central European
tour when he visited Slovenia, Austria, Czech Republic and Poland, a categorization which
provoked some to imply that Croatia is being neglected in terms of wider US’s Central and
Eastern European perspective, especially taking into account the Three Seas Initiative which is
launched by former Croatian President, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, and Polish President,
Andrzej Duda, and is mostly funded by the US. Furthermore, it was Mike Pompeo who
announced this year in February that US will provide up to €850 million and this has been
approved by the Congress. However, while the majority of Croatian politicians, namely
members of the Government, welcomed the visit of Pompeo, there were others who were more
pragmatic and less enthusiastic, perhaps due to Pompeo’s involvement in Trump’s
administration. It was Croatian President, Zoran Milanović, who said that American goods
should be a priority for Croatia, but questioned the timing as Pompeo’s visit was only a month
before US’s election.

     Croatian Purchase of Fighter Jets and Pompeo’s View on Chinese Role in the Region

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Milanović’s argumentation was centered around Croatian plans to purchase 12 fighter
jets and, as media reported, the proposed jets were F-16 block 70 offered by the US; Gripen
C/D model, Rafale, and F-16 block 30 offered by Sweden, France and Israel, respectively. In
his statement on Pompeo’s arrival, Milanović said: “He’s coming to try and dump American
planes on us (…) He is coming now when the offers have practically been opened. In my
opinion, nobody should talk to them about that. This is some kind of a pressure”. In lights of
upcoming US elections, he elaborated that he is not a fan of the current US administration and
is much closer and similar to Joe Biden than Donald Trump. During his stay in Dubrovnik,
Pompeo underlined the US-Croatian partnership and thanked Croatia for meeting financial
obligations and for participating in NATO’s missions in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Poland. As
for fighter jets, Pompeo said that it is up to Croatian Government to decide which offer will be
eventually accepted, but added that he is proud of the planes the US has to offer to Croatia. In
his comments on this topic, Croatian Prime Minister, Andrej Plenković, diplomatic as usual
when it comes to foreign policy priorities, said that the process is still ongoing and after the
Government evaluates the above-mentioned offers, the decision is going to be made. The debate
on fighter jets in Croatia eventually comes to surface every now and then, as it seems that there
is a dichotomy even among military experts on some who claim that Croatia does not need a
new and fully-equipped jets, and others who advocate for a long-term solution such as US’s F-
16 and Swedish Gripen.

      When it comes to Central and Eastern European countries, perhaps the most important
topic for current American administration is national security, but not so much in terms of
military equipment and fighter jets as to information security and 5G networks that are being
developed by Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei. Croatia has already started to
implement 5G networks in some of its cities as it was previously decided that Osijek will be the
first 5G city, while Bjelovar, Karlovac and Rijeka also expressed their interest in doing so. In
an interview for Hina, Croatian journalist agency, Pompeo urged Croatia not to surrender its
strategic projects to China as it would harm domestic national security interests which should
be top priority for every country. He continued by saying that Chinese projects and investments
may have a short-term benefit of being cheap, but on a long-term run the risks for citizens
around Europe and other partner countries would be too high. Furthermore, Pompeo claimed
that internet networks and information systems need to be protected from companies whose
businesses are not transparent and are closely related to security apparatus of a state. However,
with Croatia already being a part of China+17 Initiative which understands economic, energy
and infrastructural cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe, and with China Road and Bridge

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Corporation wining a tender for Pelješac bridge construction, it appears that Americans have
waited too long for taking Croatia into consideration when it comes to joint projects of greater
significance in the Western Balkan region, other than the ones related to defense and military
security within NATO.

      Other Topics Discussed: Energy Cooperation, Visa Free Travel, Double Tax
Convention

      Yet, an energy project that might be important for US administration in terms of reducing
both Chinese and Russian influence in the region is the LNG terminal on the Adriatic island of
Krk that should start operating in January 2021. It can be seen as a part of broader agenda to
diversify not only Croatian, but European energy supply that is mostly eastern-oriented, with
Russia still being a main contributor when it comes to energy portfolio. On 13th October, the
ship converted into a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), reached the Croatian
shores as it was previously redesigned in a Chinese shipyard near Shanghai. The Krk LNG
terminal will connect Croatian transmission network with Slovenia, Italy and Hungary, as well
as Serbia and Montenegro, and will have a capacity of 2.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas
per year. The two topics that proved be of utmost importance for Croatian citizens and business
people are inclusion of Croatia into a Visa Waiver Program which would enable Croatian
citizens to travel to the US for tourism and business purposes without having a visa, while the
second topic is double tax convention which would benefit all industrial sectors and would
create conditions for boosting bilateral trade between the US and Croatia. Andrej Plenković
highlighted that Croatia has fulfilled the criteria for entering a visa free program, while Pompeo
added that there is still some work to be done, mostly paperwork and administrative matters,
on both sides. Regarding double tax convention, Croatian Minister of Finance, Zdravko Marić,
said: “This is a great signal for investors. We are tackling the matter that has been present for
more than two and a half decades”.

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Conclusion

     Even though Croatian Government has welcomed the visit of Mike Pompeo, it appears
that there were some other issues that Andrej Plenković wanted to discuss more with the
Secretary of State. One such issue that comes into everybody’s mind is the current situation in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also in other neighboring countries in Western Balkan region.
This is the case especially after Serbian President, Aleksandar Vučić, and Kosovar Prime
Minister, Avdulah Huti, signed an agreement on normalization of economic relations with
Donald Trump in early September. Moreover, one cannot overlook the recent arrival of Milorad
Dodik in Zagreb when he met with both Prime Minister and President of the Republic, which
was soon followed by visit of Bakir Izetbegović and Dragan Čović. Pompeo did not comment
on these matters as it would require, in his own words, more than a few minutes, thus, we will
have to wait for some time before we could offer some concrete insight on recent events in the
region.

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