Croatia and Cyprus agree on all strategic points and foreign policy issues and want to accelerate the European Union enlargement process, said the Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenkovic, in his statements following his meeting with the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, on Tuesday in Zagreb.
He added that Croatia aims at a higher volume of trade and other projects and would like to engage Croatian companies, that should contribute to enlarging the trade and commercial exchange between the two countries, while it is also looking forward to its cooperation with Cyprus within the framework of the Mediterranean policy.
The Croatian Prime Minister thanked President Christodoulides as this is the first visit of a Cypriot President to Croatia after 19 years.
‘We are very happy that he has selected Zagreb for this visit and are aware of the fact that Cyprus is taking over the presidency of the European Union on the 1st of January next year,’ he continued.
He added that they discussed, among other issues, security and energy, the EU enlargement, the Russian aggression against Ukraine, and the peace plan of President Trump for Gaza.
Referring to bilateral relations, Plenkovic said they are friendly and very good.
‘Personally, I was in Cyprus twice. I visited his predecessor, and last year, when Cyprus presided over MED9, and we also met yesterday in Portorož, Slovenia, while next year the host is Croatia,’ he noted.
He added that Croatia aims at a higher volume of trade and other projects and would like to engage Croatian companies such as KONCAR and Tesla, that should contribute to enlarging the trade and commercial exchange between the two countries.
We have a lot of things in common within the European Union, continued the Croatian Prime Minister, adding that Croatia and Cyprus agree on all strategic points and foreign policy issues, they want to accelerate the European Union enlargement process, and in that context, to accelerate that of their neighbours, but also that of other countries.
As concerns the Russian aggression against Ukraine, he said that the Croatian position was always clear. ‘We condemn that aggression, we respect territorial integrity, and we think there is absolutely a need for a ceasefire in order to go towards the reintegration of the occupied territories’, he stressed.
Plenkovic also welcomed President Trump’s initiative of 20 points for Gaza. ‘It is very important that it be realised and that at the level of the Security Council of the UN, a decision be taken on the establishment of international stabilisation forces, and this new situation be used for the purpose of an all-encompassing peaceful solution for both Israel and Palestine, a state for Palestine in the long run’, he further noted.
He also said that Croatia, as a country that is still withdrawing European funds, needs more time to get closer to the average level of development per capita. ‘We are now at 70% of the (EU) average, but we would like to see more development of social standard of our citizens’, he added.
Croatia is also looking forward to its cooperation with Cyprus, also within the framework of the Mediterranean policy, continued the Croatian Prime Minister, adding that representatives, such as European Commissioner for the Mediterranean, Dubravka Šuica, and her team, ‘will contribute to the cooperation between the two shores of the Mediterranean, and will certainly work on collaboration in various forms, such as in science, culture, and so on’.
‘Cyprus, is a country that is the closest to the Middle East and also to other parts. We see ourselves also as a country that would like to give its contribution to the strengthening of European security, the same as Cyprus, I believe. I am looking forward to the Cypriot presidency of the European Union,’ he concluded.