Croatian President Starts Official Visit to Russia With Putin Meeting

by croatiaweek
October 18, 2017
in News

President of the Republic of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović with Russian President Vladimir Putin (Ured Presjednice)

President of the Republic of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović has begun her official visit to the Russian Federation with a meeting with President Vladimir Putin at his state residence in Sochi on Wednesday, the Office of the President reports.

“I am very pleased to meet you in Russia, and I am pleased to talk about bilateral relations, but also about regional issues. Welcome,” President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin told the Croatian President at the beginning of the meeting at Bočar’s Residency.

(Ured Presjednice)

“I look forward to our conversations today and I believe that we will put a new step, opening a new phase in our relations, discussing bilateral relations, first of all on extending economic cooperation, cultural and other, but also on security issues in the European continent, especially in our southeastern Europe neighborhood and on global security issues in which Russia plays an essential role, “said President Grabar-Kitarović.

(Ured Presjednice)

She added that there are several open questions at the moment between the two states and expressed the conviction that they could be discussed within the framework of an “open dialogue of mutual respect”.

“First of all, I think we can set positive assumptions for further expansion of cooperation between Croatia and Russia,” she said.

The President took the opportunity to invite President Putin to an official visit to Croatia.

(Ured Presjednice)

President Putin recalled that this year marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Croatia and expressed satisfaction with the significant growth of trade between the two countries. He also expressed the conviction that all talks and meetings of the Croatian Presidency during the visit to Russia would use relations between the two countries.

Before meeting with the President of the Russian Federation, President Grabar-Kitarović also met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.