State Secretary for Political Affairs Davor Božinovic held March 19th 2010 in Helsinki political consultations with the Secretary of State for Political Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Finland, Pertti Torstila.
Expressing a wish for the continuation of the mutual visits dynamic, which contributes to the two countries' traditionally friendly relations, the collocutors pointed out that Croatia and Finland's mutual interests should be further exploited in order to strengthen the overall cooperation.
State Secretary for Political Affairs Davor Božinovic held March 19th 2010 in Helsinki political consultations with the Secretary of State for Political Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Finland, Pertti Torstila.
Expressing a wish for the continuation of the mutual visits dynamic, which contributes to the two countries' traditionally friendly relations, the collocutors pointed out that Croatia and Finland's mutual interests should be further exploited in order to strengthen the overall cooperation. They also agreed that, given the complementarities of the two countries' economies, economic relations have the potential to be further intensified, especially in the area of energy and scientific cooperation, in light of the fact that Finland allocated as much as 4% of the GDP for research and development.
State Secretary Božinovic informed his Finnish counterpart about the actualities of Croatia's negotiating process and the activities the Croatian Government is undertaking to complete the EU accession negotiations as soon as possible, with a special emphasis on the justice reform, cooperation with the ICTY, and combating corruption. He thanked for the support Finland is showing Croatia along its road to the EU, especially through the twinning projects being run as part of the bilateral assistance program.
State Secretary Torstila, once the first Finnish ambassador to the independent Croatia, expressed satisfaction with the fact that Croatia has grown from an object of international policy into a subject, actively contributing to the international scene, especially by participating in peacekeeping missions.
Asked about the current situation in the region, State Secretary Božinovic pointed out that the Euro-Atlantic perspective is the best contribution to the stability and prosperity of South Eastern Europe, which is important not only for the region, but for Europe as a whole. State Secretary Torstila said that Croatia's model could serve as an example to all the region's countries which see their future in the EU and offered to transfer the experiences with the Nordic cooperation concept, with an emphasis on the realization of cross-border cooperation projects.
Mario Dragun
Spokesman
Press releases
