First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusić will officially visit the People’s Republic of China on 4-8 November, where she will meet with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, chair of the National People's Congress Foreign Committee Fu Ying, and Deputy Foreign Minister Song Tao. Pusić will also meet with Shanghai mayor and Croatian Honorary Consul in Hong Kong Gordon Wu.
The minister will deliver lectures at the Chinese Institute of International Studies in Peking and at the Sociology and International Cooperation Department of the Lingnam University in Hong Kong. She will also meet with business people in Shanghai and Hong Kong as well as representatives of the Croatian community in Peking.
In 2012 Croatian exports to China totalled US$ 45.9 million, while imports from China were nearly $1.5 billion. Economic relations are mostly based on trade, with very little investment.
Last year Croatia and China marked 20 years of diplomatic relations and a delegation of the National People's Congress visited Croatia. Two years before that, Croatian President Ivo Josipović attended the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, meeting with the then president and now Vice President Xi Jinping.
Former Chinese President Hu Jintao paid a two-day official visit to Croatia in June 2009.
Also planned are interviews for the CCTV International’s Hard Talk, China Radio Croatia and China Daily, China’s biggest newspaper in English.