ZAGREB, March 19, 2018 – On the last day of her official visit to Chile, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović visited Antofagasta, a province in the north of the country, where she met with its governor Marco Antonio Diaz Munoz, representatives of the local Croat community and business people of Croat descent, the president’s office said in a statement.
A large Croat community lives in Antofagasta, along with the Croat communities in Punta Arenas and Santiago, which the Croatian president visited in the last couple of days.
Grabar-Kitarović and Munoz discussed the cooperation between Croatia and Antofagasta in the fields of research and education.
The Croatian president spoke in that context about a memorandum of understanding between the universities of Antofagasta and Zagreb, as well as about a visit by a delegation of the Zagreb University Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering to Antofagasta to explore possibilities of cooperation with the Antofagasta University Faculty of Engineering, the Association of Antofagasta Industrialists and the Antofagasta Minerals company.
Speaking of the cultural cooperation, Grabar-Kitarović expressed satisfaction that during her visit a programme of cultural cooperation for the period from 2018 to 2021 was signed between the two countries.
Grabar-Kitarović also met with representatives of the Chilean Croat community whom she told that she wanted to work with them on creating an atmosphere in which each emigrant would feel welcome in their ancestors’ country.
The Croatian president posthumously decorated Croat Chilean Lenka Franulić Zlatar for her exceptional contribution, as a writer and journalist, to the promotion of Croatia’s heritage and culture and presented the Charter of the Republic of Croatia to the associations Sociedad Croata de Socorros Mutuos and Club de Deportes Hrvatski Sokol for the promotion of the Croatian heritage, language, culture, education, science and sports, as well as for strengthening economic cooperation between Croatia and Chile and preserving the Croat national identity in Chile.
Before leaving Antofagasta, at the end of her visit to Chile, Grabar-Kitarović was also expected to plant an olive tree in the Croatian park Parque Croatia and visit the voluntary firefighting association “Dalmacia”, the “Hrvatski Sokol” society and the Antofagasta Croatian Club.
Before Chile, Grabar-Kitarović visited Argentina, and on Monday she travels to Brazil, the last stop of her Latin America tour.
