Croatia Thursday extended its full support to India's bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council, saying it was logical for the country to have a prominent role in the world body considering its all-round development and vibrant democracy.
This was conveyed to Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari, who is here on a two-day visit, by the Croatian leadership.
"The Speaker of Croatia (Luka Bebic) remarked that as India is the world's largest democracy, considering India's all-round development and development of its democracy, it is important for the world to have India as a permanent member of the UNSC and Croatia supports India's permanent membership in the Security Council," Secretary (West) Vivek Katju said,
briefing reporters on the second leg of Ansari's two-nation trip.
Katju said that Ansari's meetings with the Speaker today and President Ivo Josipovic last night were warm and both of them underlined the importance attached to the visit of the Vice President.
"The Vice President said that the objective of the visit is to strengthen cooperation in existing areas and to explore new areas and to put in place a system to sustain the cooperation," he said.
There is a great scope to enhance cooperation in sectors like science and technology, bio-science, physical science,
Information Technology and environmental science.
During his meeting with the President, Ansari exchanged views on Afghanistan and situation prevailing there besides giving an account on what India was doing for the
reconstruction of the war-torn nation, which was appreciated by the host country.
There is a great awareness about what India is doing in Afghanistan as both Czech Republic and Croatia have contributed troops to the NATO forces based there.
The Vice President, who arrived here yesterday after his visit to Czech Republic, sought greater international cooperation in tackling terrorism, Katju said, adding the two
sides also discussed the Non-Aligned Movement and emphasised that there was a need to have a better structure in place in view of existing realities.
Ansari noted that India had undertaken massive infrastructure projects and welcomed Croatian companies, with expertise in the field, to participate in its road construction schemes.
Katju said Croatia was an important country for India as it was the gateway to the Central and Eastern Europe which India would like to explore, apart from its ports.
He also said that both-way tourism offered greater people-to-people cooperation.