Parliament Speaker: Croatia-China relations reach enviable level

Zagreb - The relations between Croatia and China, based on mutual trust and respect, have been steadily developed for the past 27 years to reach an enviable level following the Croatian Prime Minister's visit to China in late 2018 and the Chinese premier's visit to Croatia in 2019, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković said in Zagreb on Monday.

Addressing the ceremony of opening of an exhibition on China's development in the past 40 years in the Croatian capital, Jandroković said that the bilateral relations had been continuously developed since 1992 when the two countries established their diplomatic relations.

The visit of Premier Li Keqiang to Croatia this April has made our friendship and a high level mutual trust even stronger, said Jandroković.

That visit has given an impetus to the strengthening of our political dialogue which is entering a diamond era, he added.

PM Andrej Plenković travelled to China in November 2018 and his Chinese counterpart was in Zagreb and Dubrovnik this April.

Dubrovnik was the venue of a summit meeting of the China+16 format for the implementation of the projects within The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global development strategy adopted by the Chinese government involving infrastructure development and investments in a number of countries.

During the visit of the top Chinese delegation to Croatia, the two countries concluded 11 agreements.

 "Today the symbol of this bilateral cooperation is Pelješac Bridge. It will be a permanent monument to our friendly relations," said Jandroković, in reference to the fact that the future bridge is being built by China Road and Bridge Corporation.

The Chinese ambassador Xu Erwen, who has recently assumed the ambassadorial post in Zagreb, said that the two countries had made excellent progress in their bilateral relations in the recent years.

The trade between the two countries increased by 16.2% last year, said Xu, who is the 9th Chinese ambassador to Zagreb.

 She also spoke about the importance of trilateral cooperation between her country, Croatia and the EU.