Minister Grabar-Kitarovic received Portuguese State and Foreign Minister Luis Filipe Marques Amado

The two ministers confirmed that the relations between Croatia and Portugal are good and friendly, with no open issues. As regards the bilateral relations, both ministers confirmed the wish for intensifying the co-operation in the field of economy, with the aim of increasing the trade volume. Minister Grabar-Kitarovic expressed her particular satisfaction that after 10 years Croatia has the opportunity to receive to an official visit the Portuguese Foreign Minister, expressing her hope that the coming high-level visits would be realised.

Croatia is optimistic about Portugal’s forthcoming EU presidency and expects the negotiations to reach full swing. As regards its accession, Croatia is willing to put forth all the necessary energy and effort to carry the needed reforms, said Minister Grabar-Kitarovic. The Croatian side expressed interest for the transfer of experiences in EU accession, both on a professional and expert level, and expressed appreciation of the offer to transfer the experiences and information from the Portuguese side.

Minister Grabar-Kitarovic added that Croatia, as a country on its way towards full EU membership, wishes to contribute to the activities of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Future EU Treaty, expected to begin during Portugal’s EU presidency.

Minister Amado reiterated that during its presidency, Portugal will continue to support Croatia’s EU accession. Portugal supports the EU enlargement as regards Croatia, as well as the individual assessment of the candidate countries, and appreciates Croatia’s efforts and progress in the past period in meeting the membership criteria, said Minister Amado.