PM Plenkovic in Davos with Stoltenberg about the NATO's priotities

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said in Davos on Friday that he expected the United States, with the new administration of President Donald Trump, to continue playing a crucial role both in NATO and globally and that Croatia would enhance its relations with Washington.

All of us expect today's inauguration speech of President Donald Trump and we are waiting to see the first moves of the new U.S. Administration, Plenkovic told the press in Davos, Switzerland, where he was attending the 2017 World Economic Forum.

Plenkovic said that according to information available to him and after his talks with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg earlier on Friday, NATO "will be highly prioritised by the future U.S. Administration."

Trump has recently said that he finds NATO obsolete as the alliance haD been conceived many years ago and was not taking care of terror.

As for Croatia, Plenkovic said that his country "will endeavour to keep strengthening and improving."

"I think that we must make a distinction between rhetoric in the run-up to an election and rhetoric in a transition period and consolidated U.S. Administration." Plenkovic is sure that the U.S. will pursue a responsible policy.

Commenting on his talks with Stoltenberg in Davos on Friday morning, Plenkovic said that Stoltenberg appreciated very much the contribution of Croatian troops to the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan for 13-14 years now.

Stoltenberg finds us a reliable partner and ally, the Croatian PM said, adding that his talks with the NATO secretary-general revolved around the alliance's priorities.

Later in the day, Plenkovic will attend a panel discussion at which he will meet Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic.

Earlier on Friday, Vucic said that the invitations to Croatia's top officials - President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and PM Plenkovic - to visit Serbia were always open.

This prompted Plenkovic to say that a real meeting required preparations and agreement on which topics to discuss.

The World Economic Forum is a Swiss nonprofit foundation based in Geneva.

This year's forum, which is taking place on January 17-20, brought together nearly 300 political leaders from 70 countries, 1,000 senior executives from big companies as well as other experts. Some of the topics on the agenda are the issue of populism, geopolitical topics, global security, sustainable growth, social inclusion, and digital labour.

 

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