Slovak President Peter Pellegrini on Official Visit to Croatia on Tuesday
At the invitation of the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović, the President of the Slovak Republic Peter Pellegrini will pay an official visit to the Republic of Croatia on Tuesday. The two Presidents will meet on Tuesday morning in the Office of the President of the Republic, where a meeting of the two state delegations will also be held.
The two Presidents are expected to discuss bilateral relations with an emphasis on the economy, which is why they will also participate in the opening of the Croatian-Slovak Business Forum later in the day. The Business Forum is organized by the Croatian Employers’ Association (HUP) and the Slovak Agency for Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO), and will bring together representatives of leading Croatian and Slovak companies.
Presidents Milanović and Pellegrini are also expected to discuss the situation in South-East Europe and the European prospects of Croatia’s neighbouring countries, the results of the recently held NATO summit, the consequences of Russia’s aggression on Ukraine, and the war and crisis in the Middle East.
During his official stay in Zagreb, Slovak President Pellegrini will also meet with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Speaker of the Croatian Parliament Gordan Jandroković, lay a wreath at the Monument to the Homeland and meet with representatives of the Slovak national minority in Croatia.
During the stay of the President of the Slovak Republic, bilateral meetings at the ministerial level are also planned in the Office of the President of the Republic. The Ministers of Interior of Croatia and Slovakia and the Ministers of Economy of Croatia and Slovakia will meet separately in the Office of the President of the Republic.
This is the first official visit of Slovak President Pellegrini to the Republic of Croatia since he was elected to that office last year. President Milanović visited Slovakia in 2021.
Relations between Croatia and Slovakia are friendly and without open issues, both countries are members of the EU and NATO, and good relations are also enhanced by national minorities whose protection is at a high level on both sides. According to the Croatian Cultural Association in Slovakia, there are between three and four thousand Croats living in that country, while data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (CBS) show that around 3,600 members of the Slovak national minority live in Croatia.
The trade in goods between Croatia and Slovakia in 2024 reached 1.54 billion euros, which is a significant increase of as much as 47.6 percent compared to the previous year, according to CBS data. However, exports from Croatia to Slovakia (572.6 million euros) are lower than imports (971.7 million euros), so Croatia has a trade balance deficit. Data for the first three months of this year, however, show a large increase in Croatian exports to Slovakia.
President Pellegrini’s one-day official visit to the Republic of Croatia will end with a state dinner in the Office of the President of the Republic.