Main event celebrating the Chinese New Year in Croatia took place at the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall.
The main event marking the Chinese New Year in Croatia took place at the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall in Zagreb. At the same time, dignitaries marked the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Croatia and China, reports Večernji List on January 24, 2017.
Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said that the constructive role of China in the international community had contributed to further development of relations between Zagreb and Beijing and that “steady friendship” between the two countries was important in the modern world which is faced with numerous challenges. Expressing her hope that the new year would bring “better response to the increasing number of challenges in the modern world”, the President stressed the importance of strong friendships in the modern world. “I believe that the friendship with China is one of such friendships”, said Grabar-Kitarović.
Expressing her confidence that the two sides would jointly continue to work on strengthening their relationship, Grabar-Kitarović said that both Croatia and China had recognized the Central and Eastern Europe as an area in which it was possible to achieve further friendly cooperation in order to “strengthen trade, strengthen the European market and allow better infrastructure links”. The President also said that, in order to fully use the favourable position of Croatian ports and their potential and to achieve cooperation in the fields of energy, transport and infrastructure, further efforts were needed to implement projects of common interest.
Commenting on the establishment of diplomatic relations 25 years ago, the President said that “the last quarter-century demonstrated mutual trust, stable friendship and openness of the two nations”.
Chinese Ambassador to Croatia Deng Ying said that China paid great attention to partnership and cooperation with Croatia and that that are “great prospects for further deepening of cooperation” between the two countries. “This year is a good opportunity to deepen mutual trust and raise our relations and cooperation to a higher level”, said Deng. She pointed out that the successful visit of Croatian President to China in 2015 gave “a new impetus” to the development of mutual relations and added that economic and trade relations between the two countries have strengthened since then. In the past quarter-century, continued Deng, Croatia and China have shown each other “respect and honour”. She also expressed satisfaction with the cooperation in the fields of culture, education and sports.
The celebration at the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall was marked by the performance of a theatre from the city of Ningbo, together with singers, dancers and acrobats.
