Azerbaijan and Croatia open a new page in bilateral cooperation as the two are keen to promote interaction in both political and economic platforms.
The official visit of Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic to Baku on October 24 covered a broad range of issues including political, economic and security and gave impetus for expansion of bilateral relations in various spheres and confidence in further development of ties, AzerNews writes.
The two countries have many common areas for cooperation, as well as have many similarities in the history after gaining independence.
Azerbaijan and Croatia are strategic partners and friends, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said. “For us Croatia is one of the friendly countries which we cooperate with for many years. Strategic partnership and friendship declaration covers all the areas of our cooperation,” said the president. “We have very good political contacts, and today’s visit of Madam President shows that we actively communicate in the framework of international organizations, United Nations, OSCE, Council of Europe.”
The Azerbaijani president said he expressed gratitude to Croatia for supporting the proximity between the EU and Azerbaijan. “We are now working on the future format of the EU-Azerbaijan cooperation. We already have strategic partnership declarations with nine member countries of EU. And I think it is a good basis for a potential EU-Azerbaijan agreement.”
In turn, President Grabar-Kitarovic stated that Croatia considers Azerbaijan an important partner in the Caucasus region.
The Croatian president stressed good political relations existing between the two countries, noting that there is much room for improvement.
“There is much room to deepen and widen our cooperation, especially in economy, investment, trade, and also in people-to-people contacts, culture, education, defense and security, and overall cooperation, coordination and consultations on regional and global security issues that affect all of us,” AzerNews quoted Croatian president as saying.
