HELSINKI, May 29 (Hina) - Croatia has Finland's support in its ambitions to access the European Union, Prime Minister Ivica Racan said in Helsinki on Wednesday following a meeting with his Finnish counterpart Paav Lipponen.
HELSINKI, May 29 (Hina) - Croatia has Finland's support in its
ambitions to access the European Union, Prime Minister Ivica Racan
said in Helsinki on Wednesday following a meeting with his Finnish
counterpart Paav Lipponen. #L#
The Finnish premier announced that the "Finnish parliament would
ratify an Agreement on Stabilisation and Association between
Croatia and the EU this autumn".
Liponnen said that Finland considered Croatia a key country in the
Balkans. Croatia has invested a great deal of effort towards
stabilising the region, the Finnish premier said.
Asked about relations with neighbouring countries - Slovenia and
Yugoslavia - Racan replied that it was in Croatia's strategic
interest to maintain good cooperation with its neighbours and to
continue contributing to stabilising the region.
Speaking about relations with NATO, Racan emphasised that Croatia
was now a member of the Membership Action Plan (MAP) and he
expressed hope that after the autumn summit in Prague, Croatia
would become an official candidate to access the Northern-Atlantic
organisation.
The two premiers spoke about bilateral relations to date,
particularly with regard to economic co-operation in
telecommunications, ship-building and the wood manufacturing
industries, as well as tourism.
Prime Minister Racan visited the Nokia telecommunications company
on Tuesday and stated that he had spoken to the Finnish premier
about possible investments into Croatia.
Racan also met with the president of the Finnish parliament, Ritta
Uosukain who welcomed parliamentary cooperation between the two
countries.
(hina) sp sb