President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan received his visiting counterpart from Croatia, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, at Arg palace in Kabul on Sunday.

During the meeting, the leaders discussed boosting bilateral cooperation, Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process, ceasefire, counter-terrorism and elections, a statement issued by Ghani’s office said.
The Croatian president said that she had a special interest in Afghanistan, adding her country would continue to support Afghanistan in the framework of Resolute Support in the areas of economy, health, development and culture. She also called for lasting peace in Afghanistan.
During the meeting, the Croatian president invited Ghani to visit Croatia with an economic team and representatives of private sector at an appropriate time.
Thanking the Croatian president for the visit and her country’s support to Afghanistan, Ghani said the European markets are of great importance to Afghanistan. He said that the technical teams of the two countries should jointly work on finding market for Afghan products including saffron and pine nut.
The Croatian president visited Kabul after meeting with her country’s troops in northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
“I thank you for what you are doing here, you are defending Croatian security; you are defending our youth from opiates that mostly come from this State and you are defending our borders from illegal migrants. You can just imagine what would happen if the system collapsed and a million people set out for Europe and the European Union via Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina”, President Grabar-Kitarović told the troops.
In Kabul, the visiting president also met with Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.