King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain are arriving in Croatia next week for an official visit that has been planned for a long time and whereby they wish to strengthen the excellent relations between the two countries, a high-ranking source at the Spanish Foreign Ministry has told Hina news agency.

So far, Croatia and Cyprus are the only EU member states Felipe VI has not visited.

He and the queen visited Croatia privately in August 2016, when they sailed along the Dalmatian coast for a week with their daughters Leonor and Sofia, Spanish media reported. At Palace of Zarzuela, however, they would neither confirm nor deny that, saying they do not report on the royal couple’s private visits.

During next week’s visit to Croatia, they will deliver a speech. They are arriving in Zagreb by plane on Wednesday afternoon and returning to Madrid the following afternoon.

The visit was agreed after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited Zagreb in April 2021, which was the first visit by a Spanish prime minister to Croatia, and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković visited Madrid this past March.

These visits are taking place as part of the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the Spanish source said.

A ceremonial welcome will be organised for the royal couple, after which Felipe VI will meet with President Zoran Milanović, and Queen Letizia with Croatia’s First Lady, Sanja Musić Milanović.

The royal couple will then lay flowers at the Monument to the Homeland and have dinner with Milanović and his wife.

On Thursday, the king will open a scientific congress, where a memorandum of understanding will be signed for a project on which the two countries’ physicists will work.

The physicists will analyse materials necessary for building the first demonstration power plant in the EU, which will produce electricity thanks to nuclear fusion. A testing facility is being built in Granada, Spain.

The memorandum is expected to say that Croatia will invest over €600 million in the construction of the facility, or 5% of the project’s budget, the Spanish source said. Croatia committed to the investment in March.

The memorandum will be signed by Spanish Science Minister Diana Morant, who is also coming to Zagreb.

Felipe VI and Queen Letizia will also meet with representatives of the Spanish community, after which the king will meet with Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković and have lunch with Prime Minister Plenković, while the queen will visit a rehabilitation centre and have lunch with the first lady.