"I am pleased that Croatia is focusing its policies on finances and the economy. That is important and good for people in Croatia and naturally we wish to support that process," Angela Merkel said after meeting with Plenkovic, noting that German-Croatian relations were excellent.
"I can only conclude that Germany will continue to be a good partner to Croatia and based on everything, I can conclude that bilateral relations are excellent," Germany's Chancellor said.
She underscored the need to additionally strengthen economic relations.
"There are 380 German companies operating in Croatia who provide for 80,000 jobs which is 10% of those employed in the private sector in Croatia. I think that is an important contribution to Croatia's economic development," Merkel said.
"Our talks are once again confirmation of excellent and friendly relations," Plenkovic said. He added that all the problems relating to economic development would be resolved through intensive talks at the ministerial level as well as through task forces.
Plenkovic underscored that he spoke with Merkel about how to support countries in Southeast Europe on their path to the European Union.
"We concluded together that it is necessary to help countries in Southeast Europe in the process of European reforms and that in particular refers to Bosnia and Herzegovina and its path," Plenkovic said after the talks with Merkel. He added that Croatia was prepared to help with its fresh experience in the negotiation process.
"We as a full member of the European Union can help Bosnia and Herzegovina, naturally by continuing to advocate the equality of all three constituent peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina," he said.
Merkel expressed her satisfaction that Bosnia and Herzegovina had met all the criteria to continue the process of coming closer to the European Union.
With regard to Serbia's prospects on its pathway to the EU, Plenkovic underscored that he hoped that during his term in office, many outstanding issues with Serbia would be resolved and that the negotiation process was an excellent opportunity for that.
Merkel agreed with Plenkovic that it was necessary to resolve outstanding issues between Croatia and Serbia but also underscored that problems between the two countries needed to be resolved at the bilateral level and not through the negotiation process.
"Germany is prepared to help in that regard," she said.
She also stressed that Croatia and Germany advocated the same position with regard to the conflict in Ukraine.
"We agree with Croatia with regard to the migrant issue. Croatia was affected by that issue last year and we agreed that we would approach that problem within the framework of the joint European agenda," Merkel said.
She recalled that numerous Croatian immigrants were an important link between Germany and Croatia.
"Hundreds of thousands of Croatians are coming to Germany, and they are something like a bridge between our two countries," she said, adding that Germany had supported Croatia from the start in its efforts for independence and later to access the European Union.
Asked by reporters what he had to say about the increasing popularity of populism in Southeast Europe and beyond, Plenkovic explained that his party was fighting against tendencies of that nature.
"The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) led its campaign on a moderate centre-right platform with European traditions and showed that we can win without populism. It is necessary to raise the culture of political activism and we will endeavour with all our power through our foreign affairs to impact the growth of political culture in the region," he said.
Plenkovic is expected to meet with the president of the Bundestag, Norbert Lammert, later in the afternoon.