Ambassador Željko Vukosav, together with the Portuguese hosts, opened on Saturday, 4 July 2009, the International Handicrafts Fair in the town of Maia.

This is the largest fair of this kind in Portugal with more than 200,000 visitors. This year there were 180 other exhibitors, and the Republic of Croatia was presented as a guest country for the first time. At the Croatian booth, which had an honorary central place at the Fair, the Republic of Croatia evinced its strong link with the sea by exhibiting the products made of Murano glass that had already been awarded in Croatia. Great interest of the visitors was aroused by tourist brochures issued by the Croatian National Tourist Board, as this year Croatia is a hot favourite destination in Portugal.

In the evening part of the programme, the guitar Trio Elogio from Zagreb held a concert in Lisbon on Thursday, 2 July 2009, organised by the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia to the Republic of Portugal. The concert was opened by Croatian Ambassador Željko Vukosav.

The particularity of this multinational classical guitar trio is that it consists of three young men: Tomislav Vukšić from Croatia, Pedro Ribeiro Rodrigues from Portugal and Petrit Ceku from Kosovo. Guest performance of the Trio Elogio in Portugal was financially supported by the Ministry of Culture of Croatia.