 | |
 Croatia |  Italy |
|---|---|
| Diplomatic mission | |
| Embassy of Croatia,Rome | Embassy of Italy,Zagreb |
The foreign relations betweenCroatia andItaly are commenced in 1992, following thedissolution of Yugoslavia and theindependence of Croatia. Relations are warm and friendly with robust bilateral collaboration.[1][2] The two nations have strong connectivity through tourism, immigration, foreign aid, and economic mutualism.
Italian is an official language inIstria County (in Croatia, due to the presence ofIstrian Italians), whileMolise Croats inhabit the Italian city ofCampobasso. The close multiculturalism between Croatia and Italy is broadly popular and favored domestically. Croatia and Italy are close military allies, especially through their naval and coastal forces, with membership inNATO. They share a 370 nautical-mile maritime border over theAdriatic Sea, with a small 12 mile region ofSlovenia separating them by land.
Both countries are members of theEuropean Union andCouncil of Europe, sharing the same official currency, theeuro (€). Croatia has an embassy inRome and general consulates inMilan andTrieste while Italy maintains an embassy inZagreb and a general consulate inRijeka, among other cultural organizations.
The foreign relations betweenCroatia andItaly are commenced in 1992, following thedissolution of Yugoslavia and theindependence of Croatia. Italy was a key partner to Croatia following its statehood, providing critical political and economic support during the 2000s.[3] In 2007, Italy's presidentGiorgio Napolitano strained diplomatic relations by referring to theYugoslav communist Partisans’ expulsions of Italians during the end of World War II, as the "barbarism of the century" and being a result of “Slav bloodthirsty hatred and rage”. This led to Croatia and Slovenia condemning the comment.[4] Croatian presidentStjepan Mesić accused Napoletano of historical revisionism but the nations' diplomats quickly resolved the matter in Rome.[4]
Italy supported Croatia's admission to the European Unionin 2013. A diplomatic row emerged between the two states in 2019, afterAntonio Tajani, the President of the European Parliament, commented "Long live Trieste, long liveItalian Istria, long liveItalian Dalmatia, long liveItalian exiles".[5] Tajani later apologized to the Croatian government clarifying his comments were not intended to imply that theIstrian andDalmatian regions of Croatia were a part of Italy.[6] In 2023, after a decade of strong economic activity, Italy became Croatia's most important trading partner with a 45% increase since 2021, according to Tajani.[2] That year, the two nations signed a tri-party agreement withSlovenia to ease immigration in Southeast Europe.[7] Italy helped return a rare and "extremely valuable" 14th-century religious cross to Croatia, after a private citizen inadvertently bought it during an auction in London.[8]
There are around 19,500 people of Italian descentliving in Croatia. There are also around 6,000Molise Croats in Italy. In addition, there are around 21,000 registered immigrant Croatian workers in Italy.[9] Italian is an officially-recognizedlanguage in Croatia, with the majority of its speakers living inIstria County.Dalmatian Italians historically constituted a significant population of Dalmatia. Italian is a popular foreign language in Croatia, with 14% of Croatians able to speak it well enough to have a conversation, according to Eurobarometer.[10]
The two countries share multiple bilateralfree-trade agreements. Croatia exports around 14% of their total annual export to Italy.[11] Trade between the two states totaled €8.64 billion in 2023, reaching an all-time high.[2]
Croatia and Italy both maintain exclusive economic zones over theAdriatic Sea. Italy disputed thereach of Croatia's zone around theItalian part of the Adriatic in January 2008 claiming it violated an earlier agreement they made over "Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zones".[12] The two states mutually settled the dispute later that year.[12] This zone is supervised by theCroatian Navy, which intercepted two Italian ships in 2008 and 2021, seizing theirillegal fish, and escorting them back to Italian waters.[13][14]
Croatia has an embassy inRome, general consulates inMilan andTrieste, and consulates inBari,Florence,Naples, andPadua.[15] Italy has an embassy inZagreb, general consulate inRijeka, Vice Consulate inBuje,Pula andSplit, as well as Italian Cultural Institute and Foreign Trade Institute inZagreb.[16]
Croatia and Italy share a large number of sister cities between themselves.[17][18] Many of these cities have Croatian and Italian-language versions of their name due to historic cultural diffusion.
Biograd and
Porto San GiorgioBjelovar andAscoli Piceno /RubieraCrikvenica andVerbaniaDubrovnik andVenezia /Ragusa /RavennaKarlovac andAlessandriaKriževci andReana del RojaleLabin andCarbonia /Manzano /SospiroloLipik andAbano TermeMatulji andCastel San Pietro TermeMedulin andMontecarotto /Porto TolleNovigrad andSacileOmiš andSan Felice del MoliseOpatija andCarmagnola /Castel San Pietro TermeOsijek andVicenzaPag andCarbonera /ZanèPoreč andMassa Lombarda /Monselice /SegratePula andImola /VeronaRijeka andEste /Faenza /Genoa /TriesteSamobor andParabiagoŠibenik andCivitanova Marche /Muggia /San Benedetto del TrontoSlunj andCastel San GiovanniSplit andAnconaTisno andBucineTrogir andMontesilvano /Porto Sant'Elpidio /Tione di TrentoVaraždin andMontaleVinkovci andCamponogaraZadar andAncona /Padua /Reggio EmiliaZagreb andBologna /Molise{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)| Africa |  | |
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