The Emir of Qatar is on a two day visit to Croatia. 
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and his wife, Shiekha Mozah, arrived Wednesday, and were greeted by Croatian President Stjepan Mesnic at the presidential palace in Zagreb. The two leaders then quickly got down to business.
One of the more important parts of this state visit included the signing of an economic cooperation agreement. In addition, the Memorandum of Understanding between the Qatar Olympic committee and the Croatian Olympic committee and another Memorandum of Understanding between Qatar Development Bank and Croatia’s Development and Reconstruction Bank were also signed yesterday in the presence of the Emir and the Croatian President.
Qatar and Croatia go back a ways. During his visit, Sheikh Al-Thani reminded Mesnic that it was Croatia which was the first European country to offer his country the construction of a natural gas terminal. He stressed that various European nations have now also offered to build such facilities, but that they do not want to answer them until they have the clear Croatian stance about Qatar’s proposal.
Wednesday also saw the Emir give Mesnic the necklace of independence. In return, Mesnic gave Al-Thani the the Order of King Tomislav with the Sash and Great Danica.
The Qatari Emir voiced his opinion that due to the economic crisis, smaller countries like Croatia and Qatar should cooperate in order to exit the crisis stronger in two to three years time. He voiced his wish to visit Croatia during summer privately, which the Croatian President welcomed.
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