Mesic wrapped up his working visit on Tuesday by attending an Austrian-Croatian business forum in Vienna. "Our hosts were great," Mesic told reporters at the end of the visit, during which he had met Fischer, Parliament Speaker Barbara Prammer and Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer.
Addressing the business forum, Fischer said that Austria and Croatia had "very good relations" in all areas, including politics, economy, culture and science, while Mesic urged Austrian-Croatian joint ventures in third markets, saying that Austrian companies could reach other markets in the region through Croatia.
Speaking of the unfavourable balance in trade with Austria, Mesic said that Croatia should focus on exporting finished products rather than raw materials.
Asked by reporters to comment on the election of Serbian Radical Party leader Tomislav Nikolic as chairman of the Serbian Assembly, Mesic said he could agree with the decision of the Serbian parliament on the condition that Nikolic "forgets about the Virovitica-Karlovac-Karlobag line," referring to the imaginary western border of a great Serbia claimed by Serbian nationalists and proponents of Serbian territorial expansion.
On Tuesday morning Mesic also met representatives of Croatian minority organisations in Austria of the Burgenland Croats.