BUDIMIR LONČAR

'If Ante Markovic had appeared 10 years earlier, Yugoslavia would have been a leaven for many things in the EU' 'Yugoslavism as a political idea has been consumed, but its values ​​and historical duration cannot be erased' By: Zdravko MilinovicPosted: October 4, 2020 10:56 pm Facebook Twitter Messenger E-mail The last Yugoslav Minister of Foreign Affairs, Budimir Lončar, was the first career diplomat to rise to the highest position in Yugoslav diplomacy. Today he lives on the route Preko (Ugljan) - Zagreb - New York. When he talks about his career, he begins and ends with Koča Popović , his great chief of diplomacy and lifelong friend. This general, writer, writer, erudite and minister is at the forefront of the gallery of world powers he has befriended during his turbulent life. “I may be old, but I’m not old,” are the words he once thanked a man who congratulated him on his vitality. Loncar resigned as Yugoslavia's foreign secretary when he realized he could no longer prevent the war. He says, "I submitted it at the right time, but at the last hour." He decided not to return to Belgrade and remained in New York at the time the shells began falling on Sarajevo. After your resignation, you stayed in New York for 10 months. The procedure around your appointment to a new position in the UN was going on, as well as the preparations for going to Indonesia. Did they call you from the countries of the former Yugoslavia? I was in contact with Croatian and other ambassadors to the United States, especially those from non-aligned countries. Boutros showed me a letter from the head of the then Yugoslav mission to the UN, dictated from Belgrade by Borisav Jovic . They protested that I entered the UN diplomatic system. Ghali said that the letter from Belgrade was an additional argument for my appointment to Indonesia! Where did the friendship with George Soros come from? I met Soros through Svjetlana Kostić Stone , who was the secretary of the American Academy of Sciences and Arts. She was dating Soros at the time. Svetlana's stepfather was a famous professor of mathematics at MIT, a Nobel laureate. Her life is a movie story. He was interested in the situation in Eastern Europe, but also in global relations, everything I did, so I was an interesting interlocutor. He was already thinking about the Open Society. Then he crossed $ 300 million, and now has $ 28 billion, he decided to turn profits from one of his jobs, his transactions in which he was ingenious, into movements for the development of democratization and an ‘open society’. He presented all this brilliantly in his famous book ‘Soros v. Soros’. We became very good friends. How did you win people over? I have always tried to present to people a broader context in which to look at a problem, without categorical attitudes, without imposing their opinion, understanding their problems and interests, to be of use to them in some way. I mastered this in DSIP Analysis and Planning, where I spent eight years. It has become my skill, but also a characteristic, my diplomatic philosophy and I believe that is one of the reasons why I have made so many friends around the world. How did you make friends with, say, George H. Bush, Dietrich Gensher, or Willy Brandt? I had my first contacts with Bush at the UN during the admission of the People's Republic of China to membership. On behalf of the Non-Aligned, I lobbied for the admission of China and the expulsion of Taiwan (Formosa). The Americans were against it, and their delegation was led by Bush as the permanent representative to the UN. We met about it a few times. image George H. Bush and Budimir Lončar Private archive My longtime friend Claude Cheysson , the French Foreign Minister, told me that the members of the European Community would also vote in favor of China's admission and would not tell the Americans until the last minute. Five minutes before he came out on the podium, I called Bush aside and said, 'George, we get it, we have it with us and the EC, take care of that in your speech.' He never forgot that. When he became Vice President of the United States, we renewed our acquaintance from New York. It was the time of Andropov's appearance and the announcement of his reforms, which interested Bush. We met unusually many times, at least once a month, so we became friends. His friend was also Fitzroy Maclean whom I had known since Vis, which deepened Bush's trust. And how did you meet Genscher? Genscher was a unique figure of the second half of the 20th century. We met while he was interior minister. As Germany's foreign minister, he quickly realized that Yugoslavia was a significant player on the international stage. A country that had a special experience with the USSR. A country that had a complementary policy Brandt's os policy. Genscher decisively influenced Kohl to ‘see through’. It was the time of Germany's exit from the position of the object of the Cold War to the position of the subject of detente. Everyone's ultimate goal was the unification of Germany. He saw in me a good interlocutor. MVP Political Director Van Wellhe told me that he would often invite me for interviews at big events, and that was Genscher's order. At every important event, one should always talk to the American and Soviet ambassadors, as well as the Yugoslav ambassador. He was with Barbara , his wife, here in Zadar, on Ugljen and Kornati. Willy Brandt also offered to help you in 1992. When I resigned, Brandt immediately sent me his envoy, Ambassador Horst Grabert . He was then president of the Socialist International and wanted me to be his advisor. I accepted that, of course. As early as the fourth month of 1992, he sent me to Latin America to explain to the Socialists there, led by the President of Venezuela, the Social Democrat Perez, why communism had failed, why the Soviet bloc had disintegrated, and what compromising communism meant for social democracy. Brandt's death caught me in New York. It was very difficult for me. Gone is a great historical figure and a dear friend. My Srdjan appealed to me to stay in New York. Janjashe didn't know I wasn't coming back. It was a very difficult life exam and a human dilemma for me. The younger son and Janja were endangered. When I resigned, 300 attacks appeared in Serbian newspapers in a month and a half. And in Croatia, they devastated my house in Ugljan at the same time. You had a long-term collaboration with Tito, but you did not belong to his closest circle of associates?