"Croatia hasn't forgotten you, but we certainly can and have to do more. Today when we are a sovereign and independent state, that's how we must act regarding the protection of the identity and interests of members of the Croatian people outside Croatia's state borders. That's our obligation, not just as a debt to the past, but even more as a pledge to the progress and survival of the Croatian people," she said opening the 23rd Croatian Minorities Forum, organised by the Croatian Heritage Foundation (HMI).
In attendance were representatives of Croat minority institutions and associations from Italy, Serbia, Slovenia, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia as well as representatives of the diplomatic corps from the countries with a Croatian minority.
The president said her policy focused on the relationship between Croats at home and abroad, and that it was an area of the state policy requiring maximum unity. She supported "everyone directly working in that field, in which the Croatian Heritage Foundation has an important... role."
She said the estimated number of Croatian emigrants was at least three million and that they were the earliest emigrants in Europe. She recalled that Croats have lived in Burgenland, Austria and Molise, Italy for at least 500 years and in Boka Kotorska, Montenegro for over a thousand.
The president underlined the importance of preserving traditional Croatian culture in foreign countries as well as the importance of Croatian emigrants in economic, cultural and political cooperation between the countries they lived in and Croatia.
She called on Croatian diplomats to intensify efforts in countries in which Croats still did not have national minority status to be granted it in line with good European standards or, if possible, in line with the standards national minorities enjoyed in Croatia.
Director Mijo Maric said the HMI had been working for 66 years to improve the position of minorities and advance relations with the majority so that minorities would feel safe.