ZAGREB, July 17, 2018 – Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović will travel to Albania on Wednesday for a three-day official visit during which she will meet with the Albanian state leadership in Tirana and visit the Adriatic port of Durres, the President’s Office announced on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Grabar-Kitarović will meet with her host, President Ilir Meta, for tete-a-tete talks, which will be followed by a meeting of the official delegations.
On Thursday, the Croatian president is due to meet with Prime Minister Edi Rama and Parliament Speaker Granit Ruci, and address the national parliament. On the same day, she will travel to Durres where she will present a joint project on the conservation of the Adriatic Sea.
President Meta paid a working visit to Croatia in January, when the two sides assessed their relations as very good and cited possibilities of advancing their relationship in industry and energy. On that occasion, Grabar-Kitarović raised the issue of pollution of the Adriatic Sea coming from southern countries.
Grabar-Kitarović and Meta agreed then that the protection and prevention of pollution of the Adriatic and its coastal areas was of strategic importance to both countries and that a new cooperation mechanism, the Adriatic Trilateral, could help towards that end.
Noting the importance of the further process of EU enlargement for the full consolidation of Croatia’s eastern neighbourhood, Grabar-Kitarovic expressed Croatia’s strong support for Albania’s EU membership bid. The two countries also maintain good bilateral cooperation within the US-Adriatic Charter in the Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan.
During Croatian Defence Minister Damir Krstičević’s visit to Albania in April, President Meta thanked Croatia for its contribution to the NATO-led KFOR mission in Kosovo.
