ZAGREB, Oct 14, 2020 – Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov will visit Croatia on October 27 and will meet with senior state officials, Russia’s new Ambassador to Croatia Andrey Nesterenko announced on Wednesday, the day he presented his credentials.
Minister Sergey Lavrov will meet on October 27 with Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gordan Grlic Radman, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and President Zoran Milanovic, the ambassador told the HRT national broadcaster.
He did not exclude that those meetings might discuss a visit by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to Croatia in 2021.
Nesterenko presented his credentials to President Milanovic today and said that he left a strong impression on him.
It seems that he has a broad knowledge in many areas. My impression is that the president is very interested for Croatia’s interests to be protected everywhere,” said Nesterenko, who was previously the ambassador to Montenegro and a spokesman in Russia’s foreign ministry.
I have come to Croatia with the best and sincerest intentions to work on developing relations between our two countries, he said.
Nesterenko said that in his talks with Milanovic he mentioned possible energy supplies from the USA and said that Croatia’s officials were leading a multi-facedted policy in that field and that they were attempting to take all offers into consideration, which is absolutely understandable.
Commenting on US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent visit to Croatia, Nesterenko said that his American counterpart tried to anchor himself here in Southeast Europe but that in the end he did not see any anchor.
If foreign diplomats will come to your country and throw their anchors, I think that that shows a lack of respect, he said and added that his impression is that Croatians are a very proud, independent and sovereign people.
You yourself set the framework of your foreign policy and you yourself can assess the behaviour of foreign guests, he concluded.
Nesterenko is replacing ambassador Anvar Azimov.
