Bilateral Relations
After the recognition of the Republic of Croatia by the State of Israel on 16 April 1992, diplomatic relations were established on 4 September 1997. During the last decades, both countries have been gradually developing overall framework for bilateral cooperation, with a significant progress in the last couple of years. Besides the record number of bilateral treaties, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Strategic Bilateral Partnership between the Croatian MFEA and Israeli MFA was signed in December 2020, MoU on development cooperation in third countries, signed in May 2023, MoU on cooperation in the field of health and medicine, signed in September 2022, as well as Program of Educational, Scientific, Cultural, Youth and Sports Cooperation for the years 2021-2024, signed in June 2021. The first session of the Joint Economic Committee was also organized in order to establish concrete areas of strategic interest for future relations. At the time of the 26th anniversary of diplomatic relations, bilateral relations are the strongest ever, which is also reflected in the intensity of visits on the highest levels. After two successive visits of Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs to the State of Israel, an official visit of the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs was organized to Croatia at the end of May (after 12 years), a visit of a delegation of the Israel-Croatia Interparliamentary Friendship Group of the Israeli Knesset, in June this year, as well as
a number of other visits.
Croatia’s commitment to fight all forms of discrimination has a particularly important role in relations of Croatia and Israel, with the fight against antisemitism being on the top of Croatian priorities. In November 2005, Croatia became a full member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and from 2019, Recommendations for Teaching and Learning about Holocaust, as well as IHRA’s documents Guidelines for teaching about Holocaust, are accessible on official pages of the Ministry of Science and Education. In January 2020, Education, Culture and Science Committee of the Croatian Sabor adopted a conclusion, whereby state institutions and civil society organizations are encouraged to promote the working definition of antisemitism brought by IHRA. With a strong support of Israel, Croatia was elected to be the country chairing the IHRA during the year 2023. Having adopted IHRA's working definitions of antisemitism, denial and distortion of Holocaust, as well as of antiroma racism and discrimination on the eve of taking over the Presidency in January 2023, the Government has tasked the state administration bodies to use these definitions, so as to improve education, research and information on Holocaust and thus systematically foster remembrance about Roma genocide and Holocaust.
In the context of cooperation in the teaching about Holocaust, it is important to emphasize the cooperation of Croatian institutions with Yad Vashem-The World Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Israel. In the framework of cooperation with Yad Vashem, 25 scholarships are awarded each year for the training of teachers and professors, which has been the practice since 2005. This resulted in the signing of the first Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the teaching about Holocaust in 2013. The third Memorandum between Yad Vashem, Ministry of Science and Education and Education Agency was signed in 2019, for a five year time period. Education in Yad Vashem has been attended by more than 400 Croatian teachers, and more than 700 teachers have been trained in Croatia by the Agency for Education in cooperation with the Yad Vashem.
Croatia and Israel share many common interests in the areas of political, security, defense, economic, touristic, scientific, cultural and overall bilateral cooperation, regularly exchange views on the most relevant regional and global issues and support each other wherever possible. Croatian citizens in Israel and Jewish Community in Croatia, have very special role in bringing our societies even closer.
The Republic of Croatia is firmly dedicated to the continuous strengthening of long-lasting and sustainable partnership with the State of Israel bilaterally, as well as within relevant regional and international fora.
