Croatia wants to reach three percent of GDP allocated to defense by 2030.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković participated today in Prague in the panel "Commanding (in) Chaos: Can Europe Step Up?" as part of the GLOBSEC Forum, and spoke about key topics for NATO and the European Union. First of all, he explained, these were topics related to the strategic autonomy of the European Union, as well as topics that are geostrategically related to Croatia, primarily the enlargement of the Union to Southeast Europe, the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, efforts to achieve peace in Ukraine, and Croatia's ambitions to strengthen its defense capabilities in light of the upcoming NATO summit in The Hague.

NATO's goal is to increase defense spending in the narrow sense to 3.5 percent of GDP over the next few years, and an additional 1.5 percent for defense-related activities, he reminded.
 
Croatia has a plan to reach 3 percent of spending by 2030, he announced, and if positive economic growth trends continue, he believes that these ambitions can be met on time.
 
The additional 1.5 percent, he said, are investments in civil protection and infrastructure used for both military and civilian needs.
 
This concept, he said, is good and wise in the context of changed global circumstances.
 
The Prime Minister said that Croatia is today far above the current target of two percent of GDP and that state defense spending has increased by more than 200 percent since he became Prime Minister.
 
Strong message of support and solidarity with Ukraine
 
In a statement to the media, he referred to yesterday's visit to Ukraine.
 
Namely, the 4th Ukraine-Southeast Europe summit was held in Odessa yesterday, and the Prime Minister said that strong messages of support were sent from it to Ukraine, President Zelensky, peace efforts, strengthening of Ukrainian defense capabilities, and cooperation in various areas with the countries of Southeast Europe.
 
He assessed the arrival of the leaders in Odessa just a day after the recent attacks as an important political message of support and solidarity.
 
Asked about the new sanctions against Russia being prepared by the European Union, the Prime Minister said that Croatia supports this package.
 
This is the 18th package of sanctions, he said, adding that he believes that pressure should be continued until the aggression against Ukraine stops.
 
If the first option doesn't work, the second one will work, we always find a solution, said the Prime Minister, answering the question of whether he thinks Hungary will accept this package.
 
"It is important to find a solution for the new package of sanctions and for Ukraine to be in a position to open accession negotiations," he said.
 
Speaking about Ukraine's membership in NATO, the Prime Minister said that the message from the upcoming summit will be further support for Ukraine, however, he added, at the moment there is no consensus on Ukraine's membership in NATO, so he does not believe that this topic will be on the agenda.
 
Plenković and Fiala on bilateral relations between Croatia and the Czech Republic
 
During his stay in Prague, the Prime Minister also met with his Czech counterpart, Petr Fiala.
 
They discussed bilateral relations, the Czech minority in Croatia and the Croatian minority in the Czech Republic, trade exchange reaching 1.3 billion euros, strengthening mutual investments, energy cooperation, and the political situation in the Czech Republic, which is preparing for parliamentary elections.

News