Zagreb – Croatian Parliament Speaker Boris Šprem received the visit of Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress paying an official visit to Croatia at the Speaker's invitation.
“The objective of this visit is to further strengthen bilateral ties between the two countries and to establish contact with the newly elected government representatives in Croatia”, underlined the Chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress Wu Bangguo. In his view, the relations between Croatia and China provide a model of cooperation for countries belonging to different cultures and having different political systems. The twentieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, he said, is an occasion to fortify political foundations by intensifying reciprocal visits useful for sharing opinions on bilateral relations or any other issue. Wu Bangguo acclaimed Croatia’s path to the European Union and underlined that, as far as interstate relations are concerned, it is essential to remain focused on economic cooperation.
The Chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress expressed his wish to establish a joint economic zone along with his interest to invest in Croatian tourism, considering the ever increasing number of Chinese tourists visiting Croatia. He highlighted inter-parliamentary cooperation as an important segment of interstate relations and invited the Parliament Speaker to make an official visit to China.
“Croatia is China’s reliable friend in Southeast Europe, and once we join the European Union Croatia will remain China’s friend”, underlined the Speaker. “As the world's second-biggest economy, China has an important role in preserving world peace”, he said expressing his wish that Chinese economy would remain the engine of global economic growth as well as of the stability of international order. He congratulated the President of the Chinese Parliament on the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations and expressed his satisfaction that Confucius Institute was opened in Zagreb to mark the occasion.