The official visit of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Croatia on Monday will be held in the climate of the two countries' traditionally good relations which formally date back to the time of Germany's strong support to Croatia's international recognition in the early 1990.
Spokesman for the Germany federal government Steffan Seibert announced the visit of Angela Merkel to Croatia on Wednesday at the German government news conference in Berlin, stressing that the German chancellor would congratulate Croatia on the 20th anniversary of its independence and on the successful completion of Croatia's EU entry talks.
This will be Merkel's first official visit to Croatia. She visited the country in May 2007 when she took part in the summit of presidents and prime ministers of countries participants in the process of cooperation in Southeast Europe.
Merkel's predecessor Gerhard Schroeder officially visited Croatia in October 2003. On that occasion the two countries signed a Charter on opening the German-Croatian Chamber of Industry and Trade.
Germany was the first EU member state to recognise Croatia and efforts of the then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who never visited Croatia, and Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, helped Croatia get recognised as a new international factor.
Since then, Germany has been closely monitoring the development of sovereign Croatia.
Germany is Croatia's second biggest foreign trade partner, after Italy. Trade with Germany totals some EUR 2.6 billion. When it comes to Croatia's foreign direct investment partners, Germany is ranked third, following Austria and the Netherlands. In the period between 1993 and the second quarter of 2010, German companies invested over EUR 2.7 billion in Croatia.
Apart from intensive economic relation, the two countries relations are also based on a large number of Croats living in Germany and on the German minority in Croatia, which used to be numerous. According to official figures, over 220,000 Croats and another 300,000-350,000 people declared as Croats but holding citizenship of another country live in Germany. Croats are the fifth largest immigrant group in Germany and are said to be well-integrated.
Approximately 3,000 members of the German minority live in Croatia.
Each year, many German tourist visit Croatia. In 2010, a total of 1.5 million Germans chose Croatia as their vacation destination.
