During her three-day visit, Grabar-Kitarovic held talks with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and other top state officials and Church dignitaries and attended a Croatian-Romanian business forum.
Croats started settling in the territory of today's Romania in 14th century and today, the small community of Romanian Croats, which numbers slightly more than 5,000 people, is considered the oldest and linguistically and ethnographically the best preserved Croat minority.
Croats in Caras gave the Croatian president a warm welcome and she praised their efforts to preserve their identity.
Before visiting Caras, Grabar-Kitarovic attended the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Croatian Science and Education Ministry and the West University of Timisoara on setting up an office for the Croatian language and literature.
In 1991, the Romanian Constitution enabled members of the Croat minority the right to preserve, develop and explore their ethnic identity, the right to education in Croatian, the right to representation in the Romanian parliament, the right to the official use of the Croatian language in courts. There are seven Croatian kindergartens in Romania, five elementary schools (grade 1-4) and another three schools (grade 1-8), as well as one high school, attended by approximately 600 students.