Croatia wants to arrange an action plan with Germany for improving bilateral cooperation, mainly for attracting German investors to Croatia, said Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Thursday, after a conference with Croatian diplomats.

Ahead of his visit to Berlin scheduled for next week, Plenkovic said that he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel would try and draft an action plan for cooperation in ten areas, ranging from politics and economy, to defence, and culture.

“Our partnership in the EU and NATO is very good. We always say that Germany, notably Chancellor Angela Merkel, is the anchor of stability of the European project, as well as EU’s economic engine. Croatia has been building this partnership for years and will continue to do so,” Plenkovic said.

“What we want is a higher degree of German investment in Croatia, although our economic cooperation with two southernmost German regions of Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg are very developed,” he added.

Plenkovic, along with President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and Foreign Minister Marija Pejcinovic-Buric opened the two-day conference of Croatian ambassadors and consuls general, who received guidelines for their work from foreign policy co-creators.

“It’s important that diplomats hear first-hand about everything they must know and how they should represent Croatia,” said Pejcinovic Buric.

The biggest global challenge is the crisis of multilateralism, which reflects on Croatia’s work in international organisations and bilateral relations with some countries, she said.

A member of the European Union and NATO, this year Croatia is also in the middle of its UN Human Rights Council membership. It also chairs the Central European Initiative and the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers.

Next year Croatia will host a summit of China and 16 Central European countries, while in the first half of 2020 it will chair the EU.

The main topics of the first day of the diplomats’ conference were the geopolitical and security framework and preparations for chairing the Council of the EU in the first half of 2020. On Tuesday, diplomats will discuss the economy, public diplomacy and functioning of the foreign affairs service.

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