Maltese Foreign Minister Michael Frendo and his Croatian counterpart Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic have pledged to improve the already “excellent” bilateral relations between the two countries.

During official talks yesterday, Dr Frendo and Ms Grabar-Kitarovic also pledged to increase cooperation at all levels between the two countries. Dr Frendo said the two had fruitful discussions on several topics, especially in the context of Croatia’s European Union membership bid.

Dr Frendo said Malta is pleased that Croatia has applied to join the European Union, adding that Malta was one of the countries which was “pushing hard” for the EU to start negotiations with Croatia.

He said they also discussed the situation in other countries, particularly those in South Eastern Europe such as Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro and Kosovo.

Dr Frendo said that during talks with Ms Grabar-Kitarovic, they discussed irregular immigration. On this subject, they agreed to work together to get more international support on this situation.

The two foreign ministers signed a protocol of collaboration to further political cooperation and also the exchange of diplomats on short assignments in each other’s ministries.

On her part, Ms Grabar-Kitarovic said that Croatia plans to expand its bilateral relations with Malta since “we believe that we share the same future within the European Union, also with our Mediterranean dimension. We are interested in concessions Malta has managed to attain during its negotiations with the EU prior to membership, particularly that on the movement of workers and the sale of real estate.”

Both foreign ministers mentioned the possibility of organising business trips to Croatia and vice versa in order to allow entrepreneurs explore the possibility of investing in Croatia and Malta. Asked to specify in which fields business can improve, Dr Frendo said primarily tourism and other sectors such as information and communication technology.