Important visit for Croatian diplomacy.
Economic projects, especially in irrigation, and cooperation against cyber-terrorism were the main topics of Monday’s meeting between Croatian Foreign Minister Miro Kovač and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, announced Croatia’s Foreign Ministry on May 30, 2016.
Croatia has a sensibility for Israel as a country that had to liberate itself and fight for its independence and stability, and understands Israel’s concerns about security, said Minister Kovač in Jerusalem after the meeting.
“We have discussed the possibilities for cooperation in economic projects, as well as possible cooperation in order to effectively fight against cyber-terrorism,” said Kovač. “I spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu as a friend and I think he felt that I came as a friend of Israel and Israelis,” he continued.
There is a sense of sympathy existing among the two nations, and it is “up to us to give more content to this relationship”, said Kovač, who is the first Croatian Foreign Minister to visit Israel after Croatian accession to the European Union. They also discussed the current situation in Europe, said Kovač, who informed the Israeli Prime Minister that Croatia was a tolerant country and talked about ways Croatia protects its national minorities and all other minorities.
During the Minister’s visit, Croatia and Israel signed a programme of cultural and educational cooperation.
Earlier in the day, Minister Kovač gave a lecture to members of the Israeli Council on Foreign Relations and the World Jewish Congress. He said that Croatia wanted to develop special relationship with Israel and firmly rejected the perception of Croatia as a country of growing fascism. The specificity of the Croatian transition from communism to western democracy as opposed to Eastern Europe is that it took place at the time of the war, said the Minister. He added that was the reason why Croatia went through a more difficult process of European integration than other countries.
