They presented six specific projects which the ministry has been implementing since 2011 and which it plans to continue implementing, namely the Centre of Excellence, Economic Diplomacy, Development Cooperation, Military Peacekeeping Missions and Civil Development Cooperation, the Croatia House and Adriatic Provence.
The Centre of Excellence is based on the idea to share Croatia's experience in EU integration with other EU membership aspirants in the region as well as with Georgia and Moldova. More than 400 activities have been organised in nine recipient countries, involving 300 experts and about 4,000 people attending those activities.
The Development Cooperation project covered 19 countries in Southeast Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, as well as underdeveloped countries in transition, and included 476 projects with emphasis on post-conflict societal reconstruction and assistance to women and girls. Croatia's budget allocations for development cooperation in 2015 were four times those in 2011.
Pusic said that military peacekeeping missions are accompanied by civil development cooperation projects, while one of the main ideas of the Adriatic Provence project, the aim of which is to develop rural tourism in the Dalmatian hinterland, is to promote cross-border cooperation with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.
Over the last four years, the Croatia House has promoted Croatian culture in the world through 178 projects in 53 countries on six continents, she said.
The Economic Diplomacy project actively supports exporters on foreign markets. Klisovic said that through this project 8,500 services have been provided to over 2,000 exporters operating on 118 markets.
Comments and questions from diplomats mostly included praises to the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs for facilitating trade, providing support to foreign companies and giving a good example to countries in the region.
The Finnish ambassador commended two projects -- the Centre of Excellence and Economic Diplomacy -- saying that they proved very useful and effective and that they were working well and producing good results. The Centre of Excellence was also praised by the Albanian ambassador.
The Iranian ambassador said that a new chapter was now being opened in economic cooperation with Croatia after Iran and six major world powers reached a nuclear deal, while the Qatari ambassador thanked Croatia for helping refugees.
The Japanese ambassador thanked Croatia for cooperation, announcing a large Japanese investment in the Croatian energy sector. The Marubeni company has been selected as a strategic partner to the Croatian electricity company HEP in the construction of the Plomin C thermal power plant.
The Indian ambassador said it would be good to simplify the procedure for obtaining business visas, adding that he was aware that the visa regime was tied to the EU. Pusic responded by saying that efforts were being made to ease the visa regime with India.