IMPORTANT STRATEGIC PARTNERS

Visit of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev to Croatia IMPORTANT STRATEGIC PARTNERS

“C roatia considers Azerbaijan to be an important stra tegic partner". This was the main message which Pres ident Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović conveyed during the recent official visit of President

Ilham Aliyev to Croatia.

President of the Republic of Azer baijan, Ilham Aliyev paid an official visit to the Republic of Croatia (from 5 th to 6 th

September 2018), following an invita tion from the President of the Republic of

Croatia, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.

President Aliyev met with President

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, Prime Minister

Andrej Plenković and the Speaker of the

Parliament, Gordan Jadroković.

During the meetings both sides under

THE POLITICAL DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES IS VERY ACTIVE AND THAT DEMONSTRATES THAT CROATIA AND AZERBAIJAN ARE INDEED STRATEGIC PARTNERS

lined that the relations between Azerbaijan and Croatia were at the strategic partner ship level. President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović further stated that Croatia considered Azerbaijan to be an important strategic partner and that it would continue to be a sincere friend of Azerbaijan in the EU.

The expansion of cooperation in economy, culture, science and technology, and education were the main topics of the

meetings. The participating sides empha sized the need to intensify trade and agreed that the Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation had a serious task to do.

Cooperation in energy field was also one of the important topics during the meetings. President Aliyev stated that Azerbaijan had launched the South Gas Corridor. “In the next two years, Azerbaijan will be ready to deliver natural gas to Euro pean markets, which will be an important contribution to the energy security of Europe”, he added. President Grabar-Ki tarović noted that Croatia is interested in cooperation in the field of energy as one of Europe’s future natural gas hubs.

President Aliyev also assessed that the relations between Azerbaijan and Croatia were successfully developing. He stated that political dialogue between the two countries was very active and that demon strated that Croatia and Azerbaijan were indeed strategic partners.

During the visit, the two countries signed two documents - one on cultural and one on agricultural cooperation.