Russia sees Croatia as a vital and reliable partner in the Balkans and Europe
Addressing a press conference dedicated to the results of the Russian-Croatian negotiations with his Croatian counterpart, Jadranka Kosor, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Moscow highly appreciates the aspiration of Croatia to strengthen its multidimensional cooperation with Russia. “We have discussed in detail all the issues on the Russian-Croatian relations agenda and I should note that we see Croatia an important and reliable partner of Russia on the Balkans and in Europe as a whole.” In her turn, Croatian prime minister said the talks were focused on economic, energy and cultural cooperation, and also on the present and future dialog relating to the South Stream gas project.
According to Putin, the bilateral relations between Moscow and Zagreb in the economic sphere have been growing successfully over the past years, pushing trade turnover between the parties to $2bln in 2008. “However, today because of the adverse trends in the economy, the trade turnover has fallen. Now is time to give a new impulse to our relations, and this will be possible via diversification of bilateral ties, investment cooperation and realization of large projects, specifically, the South Stream gas project. Expressing similar optimism, Kosor also noted that the three key agreements signed during the visit should give the needed boost and impulse to Russian-Croatian cooperation. “We believe that there is still a lot of free space to further broaden our fruitful cooperation.”
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