President Milanović Will Meet with President of Slovak Republic Peter Pellegrini in Bratislava on Tuesday
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović will pay an official visit to the Slovak Republic on Monday and Tuesday. He will meet and hold discussions with the President of the Slovak Republic, Peter Pellegrini, in Bratislava on Tuesday. It is expected that the two presidents will discuss bilateral relations and economic cooperation between Croatia and Slovakia, European Union enlargement, European defence and security, energy security and cooperation, as well as the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
On the same day, President Milanović will meet with the Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, Richard Raši, and with the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic, Robert Fico.
Relations between Croatia and Slovakia are friendly, stable and without open issues, as evidenced by official contacts at the highest level. The President of the Slovak Republic Pellegrini paid an official visit to Croatia in July this year, as did Prime Minister Fico, who paid an official visit to Zagreb in April. Total trade in goods in 2024 amounted to 1.5 billion euros, and in the first 11 months of this year, 528,000 Slovak tourists visited Croatia (according to eVisitor).
On the first day of his stay in Slovakia, President Milanović will meet with representatives of the Croatian national minority, namely the leaders of Croatian cultural societies and associations operating in Slovakia, and prominent Croats living and working in that country. According to the Croatian Cultural Association, between three and four thousand Croats live in Slovakia, mostly in four settlements that are an integral part of Bratislava. The Croatian national minority in Slovakia is recognized as a minority, and the Croatian language is one of eight indigenous minority languages.
The Croatian minority does not have its representative in the state parliament, but is represented by its representatives in institutions such as the National Minority Committee in the Government of the Slovak Republic and in the Fund for Financing the Culture of National Minorities. The Croatian Cultural Association is an umbrella institution of Croats in Slovakia. Since 1989, there is a Festival of Croatian Culture that preserves and nurtures the identity, language, tradition and culture of Croats in Slovakia. In 2024, President Milanović bestowed the Charter of the Republic of Croatia on the Festival organizers.