Croatian PM says has received assurances from Orban on no territorial claims

Plenkovic explained that earlier on Tuesday he had talked with Orban on the phone and that Hungarian Prime Minister said that the latest developments had been provoked by mistranslation.

A few days ago, Hungary's Prime Minister Orban unveiled a plaque with a historical map on the occasion of the centenary of the Treat of Trianon and the map includes some of the parts of neighbouring countries, including Rijeka. That map is about Great Hungary which encompassed parts of modern day Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, Romania and Ukraine which were part of the then Hungary in the Austro-Hungarian Empire even though most of these areas were never inhabited by Hungarians.

Media reports over the weekend claimed that the inscription on the plaque says "Rijeka - The Hungarian Sea."

The Hungarian Embassy in Croatia sent an explanation on Monday saying that the inscription was mistranslated.

The proper translation, the Hungarian Embassy claimed, should read "Rijeka - To the Sea, Hungarians," which is a citation from a newspaper article from 1846 written by poet and politician Lajos Kossuth to motivate the construction of a railway and in which he described the beauty of the sea and coastline.

Croatia's foreign ministry, which handed a protest to the Hungarian ambassador, said in its press release on Monday that Croatia and Hungary are two neighbouring countries connected by centuries of common history and that the City of Rijeka geographically and in state terms belongs to Croatia, which "cannot be brought into question."

"We condemn actions that cause problems and unrest in good neighbourly relations instead of strengthening cooperation with a look to the future. In that regard, the Hungarian ambassador in Zagreb was summoned for talks in the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs," the ministry's press release said.

Plenkovic told NOVA TV commercial broadcaster that Orban had dismissed any interpretations about his territorial claims to Croatia.

However, Plenkovic, underlined, that he had made it clear to Orban that such interpretations "create difficulties in Croatia and in bilateral relations."

"Trianon was a difficult event in their (Hungarian) past," added the Croatian premier.