NEVEN JURICA CONFIRMED AS NEW CROATIAN PERMREP TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L ZAGREB 000068 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS FOR EUR/SCE, EUR/PPD AND EUR/RPM OSD FOR WINTERNITZ, NSC FOR BRAUN E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/01/2018 TAGS: PREL PGOV HR SUBJECT: NEVEN JURICA CONFIRMED AS NEW CROATIAN PERMREP TO UN IN NEW YORK; CURRENT PERMREP MLADINEO TO GO TO GENEVA REF: ZAGREB 0040 Classified By: Rick Holtzapple, POL/ECON, Reasons 1.4 B/D ¶1. (U) On January 28, the Croatian Sabor's Foreign Affairs Committee gave positive consideration to the government's nomination of current Croatian Ambassador to the United States Neven Jurica as Croatia's new UN Permanent Representative, and reassignment of Croatia's current Perm Rep in New York, Mirjana Mladineo, to the Perm Rep position at Croatia's UN Mission in Geneva. ¶2. (C) Press reports have focused on Jurica's close personal relationship with Prime Minister Sanader (and lack of experience with multilateral diplomacy) and interpreted the move as a signal that Sanader wants to have an unquestioned loyalist as the Croatian representative in the UN Security Council to help control the potential influence of Croatian President Stipe Mesic, who has a co-decision role on foreign policy issues under Croatia's constitution, on Croatia's positions in the UNSC. Post shares this assessment of Sanader's motivation in engineering this personnel change. ¶3. (SBU) The government has also forwarded to the Sabor Committee the nomination of former Foreign Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic to replace Jurica in Washington (REFTEL). The Sabor Committee has not yet taken any action on Kitarovic's nomination, although we do not anticipate any opposition to her nomination. BRADTKE