Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic said her country noticed Russia's recent stance on Bosnia and said it was a matter of concern, especially for Balkan countries.
Pusic said on November 17 that her country "obviously noticed" when during a recent UN Security Council resolution on Bosnia, the Russian delegation requested a sentence mentioning "the Euro-Atlantic perspective of Bosnia-Herzegovina" be omitted.
Russia abstained in the November 11 UN Security Council vote on the resolution, which extended the mandate of an EU peacekeeping force in Bosnia for another year.
The unprecedented Russian action reflected Moscow's opposition to what its UN ambassador said were efforts to push Bosnia toward the EU.
Pusic said that while not all Balkan nations were seeking NATO membership, "absolutely all of them are interested in EU membership, and therefore we consider that [Russia's position] to be worrying."
Pusic said this was the "first time that something like that happened in relation to a country that doesn't border the Russian Federation."
