On the first day of her stay in New York on Monday, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic attended the opening of a UN summit on climate, held bilateral meetings with the presidents of Latvia and Kosovo, and attended a high-level meeting on the protection of religious freedoms, organised by US President Donald Trump, Grabar-Kitarovic's office said.

The Croatian president and her Latvian counterpart Egils Levits underlined the very good and friendly relations between their two countries, mentioning the Three Seas Initiative and the possibilities it offered for cooperation in the economic sectors of strategic interest for the two countries.

Grabar-Kitarovic said she was satisfied with a steady increase in the number of Latvian tourists in Croatia as well as with Latvia’s support for Croatia’s accession to the Schengen area of passport-free travel and the euro area, the Croatian president’s office said.

During her meeting with Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, Grabar-Kitarovic welcomed mutual high-level visits and stressed Croatia’s support to Kosovo on its journey to Euro-Atlantic associations.

The two presidents also discussed the status of the Croat minority in Janjevo and Letnica as well as the improvement of economic cooperation in areas such as the wood-processing industry, the military industry, construction, and the electronic and energy industries.

On the margins of the meeting on the protection of religious freedoms, Grabar-Kitarovic met with US Vice President Mike Pence, with whom she discussed ways of making the partnership between the two countries closer.

Croatian foreign minister invites Pompeo to visit Croatia

Croatia’s Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gordan Grlic Radman, who was accompanying President Grabar-Kitarovic at the meeting on religious freedoms, met briefly with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo whom he invited to visit Croatia.

The Croatian minister held several other bilateral meetings.

He also participated in the adoption of a political declaration on healthcare.

The UN Agenda 2030 includes a motto by world renowned Croatian public health expert Andrija Stampar, and it is one of the agenda’s 17 goals, namely “everyone must have access to healthcare and nobody must be left out,” Grlic Radman said.