'Transatlantic relations are incomplete without Latin America, with which the European Union, the United States, and the entire western world share common values, interests, political goals and history, President Grabar-Kitarović said in a speech in Buenos Aires on Tuesday (March 13).

Her comment came in a speech at the Argentine Council for International Relations institute (CARI), where she spoke about the importance of strengthening trade ties between Europe and Latin America.

Grabar-Kitarović said transatlantic relations have been a guarantee of European security, prosperity, development and continuous growth for decades, and that they are becoming increasingly more important in the light of challenges such as the threat of North Korean nuclear weapons, turmoil in the Middle East, and mass migrations. But these relations would be incomplete without Latin America, she added.

“The relations between the EU and Latin America have been somewhat underdeveloped in recent years, although they, in my opinion, play a key role in completing the transatlantic link,” she said.

“EU and Latin America are natural allies because of their strong historical, cultural and economic ties,” Grabar-Kitarović added, and said millions of people in Latin America are of European origin, including almost half a million people of Croatian descent.

The EU formed a strategic partnership with countries of Latin America and the Caribbean at a Rio de Janeiro summit in 1999, and the bloc is now their biggest overseas investor and third biggest trade partner (behind United States and China).

“Croatia is already pretty active in Latin America. As a member of the EU, but also bilaterally, Croatia wants to strengthen our cooperation, so we strongly support EU’s efforts in stabilising the region and solving numerous challenges in individual countries,” she said.

Grabar-Kitarović arrived in Argentina last week, the first stop on her tour of South America, which will also include visits to Chile and Brazil later this month.

“Brazil and Mexico are already European Union’s strategic partners in Latin America, but Croatia believes such partnership could be extended to other interested countries in Latin America, including Argentina”, said Grabar-Kitarović, expressing strong support for signing a free trade agreement with Mercosur, the trade bloc which includes Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. The EU already has free trade agreements in place with Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, and Ecuador.