18 February 2025 - During the official visit of Prime Minister Andrej Plenković to the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Minister of Culture and Media dr. sc. Nina Obuljen Koržinek and the Egyptian Minister of Culture dr. sc. Ahmed Fouad Hanno signed the Executive Program of Cultural Cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Croatia and the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt for the period 2025 - 2028.
The Executive Programme of Cooperation envisages that the Republic of Croatia and the Arab Republic of Egypt will cooperate in the fields of cultural development and artistic activities, traditional arts, publishing, music and audiovisual activities. Mutual participation of artists in art exhibitions, music, dance and theater festivals and art residencies will be encouraged.
In the field of audiovisual activities, the screening and exchange of all types of audiovisual works and guest appearances of authors will be encouraged, as well as the mutual organisation of film weeks. The Croatian and Egyptian sides will exchange professional publications and documentation on the cultural heritage of their countries and exchange experts, research knowledge and experience in the field of restoration, protection, recording, use and presentation of cultural property. The Executive Programme encourages cooperation through UNESCO and other international and non-governmental organisations, as well as cooperation within the framework of the Convention for the Protection of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
As a reminder, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, with Minister of Culture and Media Nina Obuljen Koržinek and President of the Mesihat of the Islamic Community in the Republic of Croatia, Mufti Aziz Hasanović, arrived on February 16, 2025 on an official visit to the Arab Republic of Egypt, where he met with Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly. At the beginning of his visit to Egypt, the Prime Minister and his associates laid a wreath and visited the El Shatt cemetery on the Sinai Peninsula, where there was a complex of refugee camps where refugees from Dalmatia lived at the end of World War II.
At today's meeting, the Prime Ministers of Croatia and Egypt, Andrej Plenković and Mostafa Madbouly, discussed the further strengthening of economic cooperation, as well as cooperation within the European Union and the security situation in the world, in particular the need to establish a just and lasting peace in Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East after the war between Israel and Hamas. The focus of this official visit is economic cooperation, and Prime Minister Plenković expressed his satisfaction that representatives of about 20 Croatian companies, who participated in the Business Forum, arrived with him.
After the meeting of the delegations in addition to the aforementioned cultural cooperation program, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Ministry of Economy and the Main Authority for Investments and Free Zones of the Arab Republic of Egypt, as well as a Cooperation Agreement between the Port of Alexandria and the Port of Rijeka.
In a statement to the media after the meeting, Prime Minister Plenković pointed out that the focus of the talks was on bilateral relations, historical ties between Croatia and Egypt and political dialogue. "It is excellent that today we have signed three important agreements on cooperation in the fields of culture, investments and cooperation between the ports of Alexandria and Rijeka. We stressed the importance of trade between the two countries, the connection between the Suez Canal and the strategic role of Egypt, in the construction of which the Croats also participated, with the Port of Rijeka, one of the deepest in the northern Adriatic, strategic for Croatia's role as a transport and energy centre in that part of Europe", said Prime Minister Plenković.
In the end, he announced that he would visit Alexandria tomorrow and give a lecture at the Library of Alexandria, the most famous library of antiquity that strongly influenced the development of science and culture. The Ministry of Culture and Media has prepared a donation of books in Arabic, English and French for one of the most important cultural institutions in Egypt with translations of classics of Croatian literature and topics on Croatian history, culture and art.