Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani, on a diplomatic mission in Croatia and Slovenia

On 17 March, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani, will be on a diplomatic mission in Croatia and Slovenia.

In Zagreb, Minister Tajani will meet with the Croatian Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Grlic-Radman. The meeting will focus on the two countries' bilateral economic partnership (Italy is Croatia's leading trade partner, with over EUR 8 billion worth of trade) and on new cooperation initiatives between companies to favour the creation of investment opportunities for the two countries.

Tajani will again address the topic of economic and industrial cooperation during his afternoon meeting in Ljubljana. There, he will meet with Slovenia's President Nataša Pirc Musar, Prime Minister Robert Golob, and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon.

Italy and Slovenia do not only have an intense trade cooperation (their trade volume is about EUR 13 billion) - which is based on cross-border cooperation - as testified by the designation of Gorizia and Nova Gorica as European Capital of Culture for 2025.

In his meetings in Zagreb and Ljubljana Tajani will also discuss main regional and international issues, focusing on migration, the Western Balkans, and the war in Ukraine. With regard to the migratory emergency, he will reiterate the need to rapidly implement concrete and common actions along all the main migrant routes, including the Balkan route, through which in 2022 more than 130,000 people attempted to enter EU territory.

With regard to the enlargement of the European Union to include the Western Balkan countries, Minister Tajani will reiterate Italy's strong commitment to ensuring that the process of European integration in the region can continue with renewed drive and credibility. Lastly, with regard to the war in Ukraine, he will emphasise the importance of continuing to maintain close coordination between Rome, Zagreb and Ljubljana, especially within the EU and NATO, in order to rapidly achieve a negotiated and just peace.