ZAGREB - CROATIAN, HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTERS ISSUE JOINT STATEMENT

ZAGREB, Jan 25 (Hina) - Croatia and Hungary have created a framework for the advancement of all-round cooperation and now have to give definite form to what has been agreed, Prime Ministers Ivica Racan and Viktor Orban said in Zagreb on Friday.#L# After holding talks, the two officials signed two agreements - on concession for the building and use of a soy warehouse in the northern Adriatic seaport of Rijeka, and on scientific and technological cooperation. Racan and Orban also signed a protocol on the establishment of a mixed committee on cooperation between the two governments. PM Orban announced Hungary would start works on a motorway from Budapest southward to the Croatian border very soon, simultaneously from both directions, which should make it possible to arrive from the northern Adriatic seaport of Rijeka to the Hungarian capital in just a few hours. Croatia's Racan voiced satisfaction with economic cooperation and trade thus far, expressing confidence the establishment of joint ventures would advance the cooperation. "I believe that will be one of the first tasks of the mixed committee on cooperation between the two governments," he said. Orban said the free trade agreement signed in February 2001 and in force since April that year had increased trade by 25 percent. In last year's first nine months, Hungary's export to Croatia amounted to US$176 million, an increase of 24 percent as against the same time in 2000, while Croatia's export to Hungary was US$46 million, an increase of a mere 2.3 percent. The Hungarian PM supported the measures the Croatian government recently passed in connection with the road transit of oil products. "The Hungarian government supports the measures the Croatian government passed to prevent crime and is confident there is no danger of any discrimination against Hungarian hauliers. We not only understand but support those measures," said Orban. Croatia's Racan supported Hungary's law on Hungarians living abroad. This law, which gives Hungarian minorities in neighbouring countries certain privileges, including seasonal employment in Hungary, has caused concern in Romania and Slovakia. "There is a fateful unity between Hungarians and Croats. We want Croatia to join NATO and the EU as soon as possible," said Orban. After the talks, the two prime ministers signed a joint statement stressing Croatia and Hungary will attempt to jointly: - bolster economic and trade ties and intensify transborder economic cooperation; - participate in future joint infrastructural projects and build the Budapest-Zagreb-Rijeka motorway and the Budapest-Osijek motorway; - build a bridge on the Mura river (between Letenye and Gorican) for the Budapest-Zagreb motorway; - build new local border crossings; - improve the quality of rail services on the Budapest-Zagreb line; - support the activity of educational minority institutions in both states and continue providing the protection of minority rights in compliance with signed bilateral deals; - extend support on the state level to the compilation of a large Hungarian-Croatian/Croatian-Hungarian dictionary. (hina) ha sb