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PM Orbán builds relations with Croatia in Zagreb

The prime minister said he had arrived in Croatia to help put bilateral relations back on track

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán held important talks with his Croatian counterpart Andrej Plenkovic in Zagreb on Monday.

During a joint press conference with Plenkovic, the prime minister said he did not know of any economic issue that would be more important than the 800 years of friendship shared by Hungary and Croatia.

This trip saw PM Orbán make his first visit to Croatia in seven years, where he pointed out that the lack of energy that currently characterizes Hungarian-Croatian ties was “unnatural”. He added that he had arrived in Croatia to help put bilateral relations back on track.

“The thorn must be removed from beneath the nail, and then everything will be alright,” PM Orbán said. “This is what we would like.”

The prime minister said he and Plenkovic had made progress during their talks in both their private meeting and the plenary meeting between their delegations.

“We have common ground in terms of a historical perspective,” he said. “We want a strong Europe, we want to strengthen cooperation among European nations and we’d be happy to see Croatia join the Schengen zone as soon as possible, because this too will strengthen Europe,” he added.

PM Orbán also said that bilateral economic relations are going from strength-to-strength. Bilateral trade turnover is constantly rising, as is the number of Hungarian investments in Croatia and more and more Hungarian tourists are visiting the country.