ZAGREB, November 12, 2018 – The celebration of the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, which was held at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, was not only a commemorative event but it also served as an opportunity to look at the future, Croatia’s President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said in Paris on Sunday.
After the ceremony in Paris, the Croatian president told the press that the commemorative events were important not only to pay tribute to those who gave their lives but also to look at the future.
She said that during her stay in France, she was received by French President Emmanuel Macron, and held meetings with several other world leaders.
Grabar-Kitarović said that the Paris Peace Forum was opened by French President Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who represented the countries which used to be on the opposite sides during the World War I and II, and that nowadays the two leaders were working together on the European Union project.
Threats facing the world such as terrorism, poverty, inequality, ignorance, climate change require our concerted action and no country can deal with it on its own, the Croatian president said.
After the central ceremony was held at Arc de Triomphe, President Grabar-Kitarović met with President Macron and other world leaders at Elysee Palace, and attended the plenary session of the Paris Peace Forum.
She told the press that she had done a lot of work on the margins of the commemorative events. In this context she mentioned her meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and informed the press that she reiterated her invitation to Putin to visit Croatia.
Grabar-Kitarović presented as a gift “Judita (Judith)”, an epic poem of Croatian writer Marko Marulić, to the library of the Paris Peace Forum.
The central celebration of the centenary of the end of the Great War was held in the French capital to mark 100 years since the armistice reached on 11 November 1918. The armistice between the Allies and Germany was signed in a railway carriage in a forest near Compiegne in northern France, marking the end of hostilities which began in 1914.
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