LISBON, April 4 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic on Monday travels to Portugal for an official visit at the start of which he will meet President Jorge Sampaio.
LISBON, April 4 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic on Monday
travels to Portugal for an official visit at the start of which he
will meet President Jorge Sampaio.#L#
The Croatian president will arrive in Lisbon at the invitation of
President Sampaio. After talks with his host, Mesic will meet Prime
Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso and Parliament Speaker Joao Bosco
Mota Amaral.
The Croatian delegation and their hosts will discuss Croatia's
integration into the EU and the promotion of bilateral relations,
particularly in the economy. The Croatian officials will also meet the
management of the Portuguese Industrial Association.
As regards political relations, Portugal has expressed support for
Croatia's integration into the EU on several occasions, and it
ratified its Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU in
2003.
Mesic is the second Croatian president to visit Portugal, after the
late president Franjo Tudjman, who paid a visit in 1998, on the
occasion of Croatia's Day at the World EXPO exhibition in Lisbon, when
he met President Sampaio.
In the last ten years, former Prime Minister Zlatko Matesa and Foreign
Minister Mate Granic visited Portugal as well.
Portugal was the first foreign country former Prime Minister Ivica
Racan visited upon taking up office in 2000.
(Hina) rml