Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusic, who will take part in the second meeting of the Friends of Syria Group in Istanbul on Sunday, said on Saturday this meeting was important for Croatia because of INA's oil fields in Syria, which "cannot be left to chance."
"It is also important because Croatia has oil and gas fields in Syria which it cannot use at the moment because of the sanctions and conflicts. This is also a topic which we cannot leave to chance," Pusic said.
She said that the second meeting of this international group was important also because it was Croatia's wider neighbourhood, adding that the stability of this region also depended on stability of the Syrian region. Pusic stressed it was also important because a humanitarian catastrophe was taking place in Syria.
"Croatia was one of the first countries to help the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to provide for Syrian refugees. The amount donated for that purpose was symbolic, but the message was significant," Pusic said.
The meeting will bring together over 140 senior officials and representatives of many countries and international organisation who will attempt to find a solution to the Syrian crisis.
The Friends of Syria Group is a contact group of countries and bodies on Syria in an attempt to find a solution to the Syrian crisis, outside the U.N. Security Council, after Russia and China vetoed a resolution on Syria there. It was firstly initiated by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, and its first meeting took place on 24 February 2012 in Tunisia.
Croatia was not invited to the first meeting but it is now included in this important international group.
