The Government of the Republic of Croatia at its 137th session held on 14 January 2019 declared the Decision on the Procurement of Multi-role Fighter Aircraft null and void.
After a thorough analysis and the lesson learned we shall continue making decisions and processes aimed at keeping the capabilities and modernizing of the Croatian Air Force and defining a new model to adopt with the procurement of multi-role fighter aircraft that the Republic of Croatia needs and enjoying the consensus of all key institutions in the Republic of Croatia”, said Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.
The Prime Minister emphasized that his Government will continue to support the continuation of modernization of Croatian Air Force.
“We shall conduct a thorough analysis of the causes halting the implementation of the project, which led to the explicit statement provided through the General Director of Israeli Ministry of Defence who came to Zagreb last week and with whom I talked in person to gain a personal insight into the reasons behind the failed deal.
The message we received was contrary to Israeli’s responsibility to obtain the approval for the Third Party Transfer from the United States that is mandatory in such cases”, reminded Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Damir Krstičević said that the Israeli side had stressed that Croatia and Israel had led an open and professional dialogue throughout the project and that Croatia had evinced professionalism and correct evaluation at each step of the process and Croatia really had no control on the outcome and cannot be held responsible.
“The Republic of Croatia has conducted this very complex process from the beginning to the end systematically and responsibly, acting in the Croatian national interests. We have done everything properly and the Croatian side cannot be held responsible for the unexpected complication and the Republic of Croatia had no control over it. We have stated right questions and received the appropriate guarantees. The Republic of Croatia has not taken over the financial obligations and no damage is implied. Our sole interest was to acquire the offered assets”, said the Defence Minister and concluded, “I am convinced that the current Government will procure the right solution. We bear the responsibility towards the taxpayers and the responsibility for the security of Croatia“.
Leave A Comment