First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Vesna Pusić 23-28 February will pay an official visit to Brazil, Colombia and Chile, where she will attend a conference on “Women in Power and Decision Making: Making a World of Difference”.
"The visit should serve as support for economic projects that have already begun or exist as a possibility but still have not been realised," Pusić said ahead of the visit.
In Brazil Pusić is expected to meet with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergio Danese, Defence Minister Jacques Wagner and Special Secretary of Public Policies for Women, Eleonora Menicucci.
This will be the first visit to Brazil by a high Croatian official since 1997.
Brazil is interested in the shipbuilding industry and the construction of oil and gas exploration rigs, Pusić said. "I hope that we will move that process, which has already started, towards signing an agreement and towards project implementation," she added.
The visit to Columbia on February 25 and 26 will be the first ever visit by a high Croatian official to that country since the establishment of bilateral relations twenty years ago.
It is expected that an agreement will be signed relating to cooperation in mine clearance. Croatia has been active in mine clearance in that country since 2009.
While in Chile, Minister Pusić is expected to attend a conference on women, to be held under the auspices of Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and the UN.
Pusić is also expected to meet with her counterpart Heraldo Munoz to discuss possible economic cooperation.