State Secretary for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Zdenko Lucić on Friday attended a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council (Development). The meeting focused on water management, with an emphasis on Central Asia, as well as on the EU-US development cooperation.
Attending FAC (Development) for the first time was the Administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power, with whom the ministers had an informal exchange of views on a number of topical issues, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, energy transition, antidemocratic challenges, human rights regression, as well as the situation in the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia), Sahel (Sudan) and the Western Balkans.
Lucić welcomed the renewed transatlantic partnership, which also includes the strengthening of cooperation with USAID. He stressed that curbing the COVID-19 pandemic should be at the forefront of EU-US cooperation, as well as fighting climate change. The state secretary underscored that Croatia had not forgotten USAID’s assistance when we had needed it the most. He pushed for renewing Croatia-USAID cooperation in the Western Balkans, which is of strategic interest to Croatia.
Discussing water management in EU’s external action, Lucić recalled that representatives from Central Asia had paid expert visits to Croatia, during which they had familiarized themselves the water management system.
The Council adopted conclusions on water in diplomacy and the EU public sector expertise. Member states also exchanged experiences with sharing vaccines with third countries.