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Zagreb - Croatian Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković and Canada Senate Speaker George Furey said on Thursday the two countries are friends and allies as well as agreed on the support to Ukraine.
Furey is on an official to Croatia. Jandroković said they mostly talked about Russia's war of aggression on Ukraine.
"Croatia and Canada have nearly identical positions. We condemn and we condemned the Russian aggression on Ukraine and we strongly support the Ukrainian people in the fight for freedom," he said after the talks.
"We are already strongly assisting Ukraine and will continue with the support. We expressed satisfaction with the fact that the whole Western world stood up to defend values such as freedom, democracy, rule of law, protection of fundamental human rights, and this will be our policy in future, too," Jandroković added.
Croatia-Canada relations are "exceptionally good and friendly," he said, emphasising that Croatian emigrants in Canada are "a bridge connecting the two states."
"They are very active in the development of bilateral relations, but they are also important in the economy. We have successful investors among Croats in Canada," he added.
Economic cooperation between Canada and Croatia is also reflected in tourism, with over 100,000 Canadians visiting last year, in energy and shipbuilding, Jandroković said. "We are confident the relations, which are politically great, will get an even stronger dimension when it comes to economic, tourism and all other areas of cooperation."
Furey, too, said Croatia-Canada relations are very positive and very friendly.
One of the key reasons for his visit, he said, was not only to confirm the alliance with Croatia but also the friendship between the two countries.
He thanked Croatia for supporting Ukraine, saying that Canada, too, fully supports Ukraine and that he hopes the support will only grow.