Minister Picula received Italian Minister of Defence, Antonio Martino...

On 8 July 2003, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Croatia, Tonino Picula, received Italian Minister of Defence, Antonio Martino.

Minister Picula expressed his satisfaction that this visit came at a time when Italy took over the EU presidency, and Minister Martini conveyed the conviction of the whole Italian government that the Republic of Croatia belongs in the EU, and was reminded of his first visit to Zagreb in 1994 in the capacity of the Foreign Minister when he also believed in the permanent friendship between of Croatia and Italy.

In a conversation, the Italian Minister of Defence informed that during its presidency the Italian Republic would focus on strengthening the common European defence, without being alternative to the NATO, but would try to settle security issues together with it.

The Ministers Picula and Martino agreed that the stability in this region was one of the primary joint concerns encouraging cooperatioin between both countries, and they further spoke about the modalities for Croatia's joining the Multinational Brigade within the regional initiative of Quadrilaterale whose members are Italy, Slovenia, Hungary and Croatia. Croatian minister of foreign affairs particularly emphasized the benefits of cooperation through which the Republic of Croatia can specifically contribute to the stabilisation of the situation in the region.

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