Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic met with Minister President of Bavaria Markus Soeder in Munich on Wednesday for the talks on bilateral cooperation and the cooperation between the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the German centre-right CDU/CSU alliance.

Commenting on their meeting, Plenkovic said Croatia and Bavaria had been cooperating for the past 45 years, through the Croatian-Bavarian Commission, on the political and economic fronts.

“This was an opportunity to focus on more than €1 billion in trade and the fact that 40 percent of German tourists visiting Croatia are coming from Bavaria. We also had a chance to talk about our excellent cooperation in a number of areas, the possibility of further implementation of the very successful dual education model… and of course our wish to have Minister President Soeder visit Croatia after the election in Bavaria,” Plenkovic said.

“I extended the invitation today and I am confident we will further our quality cooperation with this large German region with more than 13 million people and numerous Croats living there,” Plenkovic said.

Asked about cooperation between the German CDU/CSU alliance and his HDZ party, Plenkovic said it was excellent.

“This was an opportunity to strengthen our relations,” he said.

Plenkovic added that approximately 100,000 Croatian nationals were living in Germany, along with many more who abandoned their Croatian citizenship in favour of German. Plenkovic said these people were well integrated into the Bavarian society and were making great contributions to the Bavarian economy.

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