CROATIAN FOREIGN MINISTER VISITS BAVARIA

MUNICH, Feb 17 (Hina) - Croatia and Bavaria had good and stable political and economic relations, and Bavaria was the prime mover of the entire Croatia-German cooperation, Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic said in Munich on Monday after talks with the Bavarian Premier, Edmund Stoiber. Granic described the talks as meaningful and friendly and added that they had revolved around the situation in Croatia, central and southeastern Europe, the relations between Croatia and Germany with emphasis on the ties between Bavaria and Croatia. Granic is on a visit to Munich where a "Croatian Days in Bavaria" event will open on Monday afternoon. Granic expressed assurance that the process of peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danubian area would be completed on time, and that it would give additional credibility to Croatia. Croatia would be now orientated first of all toward its internal development and toward central European and EuroAtlantic integration processes where we would enjoy firm support from Bavaria, the Croatian Foreign Minister said. He added that Germany was the most important political and economic partner of Croatia and that Bavaria had an important role in it. The Granic-Stoiber talks also revolved around the construction of a factory of AUDI cars in Croatia, the Piran highway's building and Germany's and Bavaria's support to the development of small and medium-sized entrepreneurship in Croatia. We needed an optimum connection from Nuremberg via Maribor to Zagreb and we were talking about this with Slovenia that had other priorities at the moment, the Bavarian premier said and voiced hope that the issue might be solved together in a successful way. Stoiber welcomed the decision of the Croatian national air carrier 'Croatia Airlines' to purchase aircraft from the European manufacturer Airbus. (hina) mm mš 171524 MET feb 97