Romania and Croatia this year celebrate 25 years of relations. On this occasion, Romania\u2019s Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu on Monday paid a visit to Croatia where he held talks with local officials on the prospects of bolstering economic and trade relations as well as on cooperation as EU and NATO members.<\/p>\n
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In terms of economic cooperation, the Romanian official highlighted the huge potential of the two countries, which can be capitalized on by identifying new opportunities. A memorandum of understanding on cooperation was signed between Romania\u2019s Chamber of Trade and Industry and the Economic Chamber of the Republic of Croatia, providing for Bucharest to host a Romanian-Croatian economic forum in autumn. Here is Prime Minister Grindeanu with more.<\/p>\n
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Sorin Grindeanu: <\/strong>\u201cI have expressed the desire of figuring out fresh opportunities in order to bolster economic relations between Romania and Croatia. Trade exchanges between the two countries last year stood at around 270 million euros. The growth potential is huge and we wish to make the most of it.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n
In terms of cooperation within the EU, Prime Minister Grindeanu said the authorities in Zagreb and Bucharest had to harmonize their standpoint on common projects such as those in the cohesion and agricultural policies, but also in terms of the Schengen accession, an idea also shared by his Croatian counterpart, Andrej Plenkovic, whose country, just like Romania, wants to join Europe\u2019s border-free region. Here is Prime Minister Grindeanu again.<\/p>\n
Sorin Grindeanu: <\/strong>\u201cRomania\u2019s foreign policy has two major components: strengthening the European project, on the one hand and on the other hand the Strategic Partnership Romania has with the United States. The EU is facing challenges we\u2019ll have jointly to deal with because, as history shows, together we were stronger than separated and that can be achieved by strengthening the European project.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n
Prime Minister Grindeanu\u2019s talks with his Croatian counterpart Andrej Plenkovic, with the country\u2019s president Kolinda Grabar and Parliament speaker Gordan Jandrokovic also focused on cooperation in several projects of environmental protection and navigation.<\/p>\n
An example is the partnership between the cities of Vukovar and Constanta for the promotion of the two port-cities as key points in developing the Danube Strategy. The situation of the Croatian minority in Romania and the Romanian-speaking community in Croatia was also high on the agenda, as those two communities are bridges in the process of strengthening cooperation between the two countries.<\/p>\n
Although not very large, the Romanian community is spread throughout Croatia. They are speakers of the Istro-Romanian dialect, one of the four dialects of the Romanian language. As there is no education or media in that dialect, the authorities in the two countries are making efforts to preserve their cultural and linguistic identity.<\/p>\n
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