ISLAMABAD: Thursday marked a new beginning for bilateral relations between Pakistan and Croatia when the first high-level delegation from Croatia, headed by its Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Gordan Grlic Radman, the longest-serving foreign minister of the Central and Southeast European country, arrived in Islamabad for a one-day visit.
Both countries decided to enhance bilateral relations in all areas of mutual interest with Pakistan focusing expanding bilateral cooperation in trade, investment, information technology, connectivity, agriculture, tourism and skilled manpower.
FM Radman’s hectic visit saw him call on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, hold delegation level talks at the Foreign Office with his counterpart Ishaq Dar and address a joint stakeout where both ministers read out televised statements.
The prime minister thanked the Croatian foreign minister for his praise for Pakistan’s role in promoting regional peace during the meeting and said Islamabad enjoyed friendly relations with Zagreb, “marked by cordiality, mutual respect and shared interest”. He also extended an invitation to Croatian President Zoran Milanovic and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic to undertake official visits to Pakistan, at their kind convenience.
The highlight of Radman’s visit was an announcement to a Croatian visa processing facility in Islamabad, sparing Pakistani applicants the need to travel to a third country to obtain visas.
Dar said the two sides agreed to continue work on legal pathways for skilled Pakistani workers while combating human smuggling and irregular migration.
Pointing to the enormous potential of growth due to their geographical locations, Dar remarked, “I briefed Radman on the potential, capacity, facilities and connectivity of our Karachi port. We discussed the possibility of collaborative arrangements between the ports of the two countries.”
Islamabad and Zagreb decided to make a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on bilateral political consultation between their foreign ministries “fully functional and hold the consultation on a regular periodic basis”. Subsequently, Dar announced Pakistan’s offer to hold the first round of consultations in the last quarter of 2026 or first quarter of 2027.
In his remarks, the Croatian foreign minister said: “I hope that this visit will help us intensify our relations, enhance our trade and investment and explore new areas, avenues of cooperation,” noting the presence of some Croatian companies in Pakistan since the 1950s.
He expressed the hope that “this successful cooperation encourages greater presence of Croatian products, technologies and services in the Pakistani market”, especially in the pharmaceutical, health, defence, digital, IT, tourism and fuel production sectors.
Radman also invited Pakistani companies to invest in Croatia, noting that his country’s position “opened doors to the European market”. He highlighted that Croatia has “internationally recognised expertise in humanitarian demining as well as solutions that can support civil protection, disaster response, firefighting and price management operations”.
Dar briefed his counterpart on the issues of India-occupied Kashmir and Gaza. Dar also apprised Radman of India holding the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance.
Meanwhile, Radman hailed Pakistan’s mediation role in the war between the United States and Iran, saying Croatia “particularly appreciated very much” Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts that last month resulted in the Islamabad MoU.
The Foreign Office in a statement said that the two sides discussed ways to strengthen ties in the field of trade, investment, agriculture, labour mobility, visa facilitation, education, defence, climate change, tourism, infrastructure and information technology. “They also exchanged views on various facets of Pakistan-EU cooperation as well as regional and global issues of interest,” it said.
