Union External Affair minister S Jaishankar yesterday said that India and Croatia share many common positions on issues like the Indo-Pacific, the situation in Afghanistan and the two countries resolve to fight terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
In a joint press conference with Croatian counterpart Gordan Grlić-Radman, the minister said “On international issues, we shared a lot of common positions and perspectives. It was very apparent in our discussions on Indo-Pacific, on Afghanistan, on our resolve how to counter-terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,”
Stressing on increasing economic cooperation between the two countries, the minister said that there are many changes in the pharmaceuticals, digital and infrastructure sectors. In an interview with a leading daily, the minister said, “We believe that Indian companies will find Croatia a very good platform to operate and invest,”
“There are already companies from Croatia operating in India and some of them have secured some important contracts like in the railway sector. We would certainly welcome more active efforts to cooperate in the defence sector,” he added.
He also continued, “Tourism is another very important area and we were talking about expanding air connectivity between the two countries,”
Previously, the two leaders discussed many topics of mutual interest, including EU-India relations, the situation in Afghanistan, economic and cultural cooperation and post-Covid recovery.
During a press meet he also informed that “I very much value the perspectives that I heard from the Croatian side about the EU, about the further prospects of the EU, about your own region. I think it is very helpful for us to get a better understanding of what is happening,”
However, he was received by Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. He arrived here after completing his two-day visit to Slovenia, during which he held bilateral meetings with his Slovenian counterpart, Anze Logar, apart from calling on the country’s top leadership.
An official report stated that his meeting with Plenkovic, Jaishankar discussed opportunities to further expand bilateral cooperation, including in pharma, digital and infrastructure.