EXPANDING EXCHANGES

Also on Wednesday, Li and Plenkovic attended the opening ceremony of the China-Croatia Year of Culture and Tourism program, and visited an exhibition of cultural relics held by the National Museum of China. They agreed to enhance bilateral cultural and tourism cooperation.

The Chinese government supports the two countries' efforts to expand tourism cooperation, said Li, noting that 250,000 Chinese tourists visited Croatia in 2018.

The premier expressed the hope that, when conditions are ripe, direct flights can be opened in accordance with market and commercial rules to make it easier for people to travel between the two countries.

Li added that he believes Croatia will attract more and more Chinese tourists, and expects more Croatian people to visit China.

Plenkovic said the Year of Culture and Tourism will further deepen Croatia-China friendship and bring the two peoples closer.

Croatia, he added, is willing to work with China to promote practical cooperation in such fields as culture and tourism so as to lift the levels of bilateral cooperation.

In their joint statement, the two sides also pledged to intensify people-to-people exchanges, deepen cooperation in Chinese and Croatian language teaching as well as two-way flow of students, and make joint efforts to promote mutual recognition of higher education academic degrees.