"Russia is an important partner not only for Croatia, but for the entire Southeast Europe," President Mesic told reporters at the start of his meeting with Putin.
"Your visit is significant for the entire region, as we could see at the (regional energy) summit today," Mesic said.
Relations between Croatia and Russia are improving in the best possible way, there are no outstanding political issues, and the issue of the clearing debt has been settled in the best possible way, Mesic said, adding that military cooperation was also developing well.
Economic cooperation is good, but the Croatian economy is not using Russia's potential sufficiently, Mesic said, adding that this was due to the fact that Croatia's economy was "not aggressive enough".
The statement from Mesic's office said that both presidents agreed that bilateral relations were good, but that in the area of economic cooperation there were "certain problems that Croatia should remove in order to create conditions for unobstructed and equal activity of Russian business circles in Croatia".
"I believe that your visit, participation in the summit and the fact that the summit was held in Zagreb will help increase the presence of our business people in Russia," Mesic said.
He called for regulating the issue of acquisition of real estate in order to boost Russian investments in the country, and fully liberalising the visa regime.
Mesic said that Russian companies had made several investments in Croatia and that there had been some delays, mostly due to administrative obstacles.
The Russian president assessed positively the Zagreb energy summit, giving President Mesic credit for his initiative to host the event, the statement from Mesic's office said.
The two presidents also discussed the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Kosovo in the context of their advocacy of the stable development of the region, the statement said.
As for the status of Kosovo, Mesic said at the open part of the meeting that the status quo was untenable and that it would be best if the status issue could be settled through talks between Belgrade and Pristina.