Croatia opens new chapter with Korea

By Rachel Lee

Croatian Ambassador to Korea Drazen Hrastic / Courtesy of Embassy of Croatia

This year marks a significant shift for Croatia’s relations with Korea, Asia’s biggest market for the southeast European country’s travel industry.

Croatian Ambassador Drazen Hrastic told The Korea Times that his country will open an embassy in Seoul this year to boost cooperation in key areas ― in particular, trade, business and investment ― that have high potential.

“Despite the fact that we have had an impressive increase in Korean tourists, Croatia is less well known here,” the diplomat said at the Lotte Hotel Seoul on Feb. 8. “Koreans are visiting Croatia because of our well-preserved nature and rich cultural heritage. And they are also coming because of the people. They feel comfortable and feel welcomed in Croatia.”

In 2011, 33,000 Koreans visited Croatia. The number jumped to 74,001 in 2013 and 264,110 in 2014.With a steady increase over the past five years, the figure for last year is expected to rise 14 percent from a year earlier, to 400,000.

Croatia became a sovereign state in 1991, following the collapse of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It is between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia, Hungary and Serbia and borders the Adriatic Sea.

Hrastic, based in Tokyo, has been the ambassador to Japan and Korea since November 2015. He was ambassador to Turkey, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan between 2011 and 2015.

The envoy’s priority with the new Seoul office is focused on building awareness of Croatia’s distinct facets that are unfamiliar to Koreans.

“We have a number of high-quality products we would like to bring to the Korean market, such as wine, olive oil, meat products, fish products and especially tuna that we are exporting to the world,” Hrastic said.

The ambassador also pointed out one of Zagreb’s interesting inventions ― the necktie or cravat.

Croatian soldiers in the 1600s wore scarves around their necks and France adopted the style when the soldiers served in France. The trend spread quickly across Europe.

Seoul and Zagreb have remained “friendly” since diplomatic ties were established in 1992, with common interests and values including democracy and media freedom, the ambassador said.

“I find it easy to communicate with Korean people, with shared traditional family values and the spirit of curiosity,” Hrastic said.

Despite protectionism spreading around the world, Croatia, a member of the European Union (EU) since 2013, believes in free trade as a “mechanism that facilitates trade and investments, contributes to job creation and through all of it to a better living standard of our people,” the ambassador said.