Croatian PM wraps up North Rhine-Westphalia visit

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Sunday ended a visit to North Rhine-Westphalia in Duesseldorf by talking with representatives of the Croat community and business people and visiting Croatian wine makers at Pro Wein, the world's largest wine fair.

Plenkovic said he was leaving with "good impressions" of Saturday's talks with North Rhine-Westphalia PM Armin Laschet, whom he invited to visit Croatia.

"I think it's very important that, aside from Berlin, we also cultivate relations with the large (German) states, and North Rhine-Westphalia, with almost 18 million inhabitants and a huge contribution to Germany's GDP, is one such state," he said, adding that Croatia has intensive relations with Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Plenkovic said he was pleased with his talks with representatives of North Rhine-Westphalia's 60,000-strong Croat community. "One can see that a part of our people living here in Germany are interested in preserving ties with the homeland and wish to contribute to economic development."

Speaking at Croatia's Consulate General in Duesseldorf, he underlined the importance of facilitating the return of emigrants to Croatia, voicing hope that "a migration in the opposite direction" would follow soon. "It's a trend that's visible in other central European members of the European Union. After a strong first emigration wave, people start coming back, enriched with new experiences."

Text: Hina

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