Explained: Significance of PM Modi's Croatia visit, and India's historic ties with the country
While in Canada, Modi participated in the G7 summit, his visit to Cyprus and Croatia is largely being seen through the angle of strategic messaging and exploring new vistas for cooperation across sectors.
After Modi's trip to Cyprus and Croatia, both members of the European Union (EU), External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will visit France, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, and the EU within a month. This highlights the growing importance of India-EU ties, especially after the war in Ukraine, the election of Donald Trump to the White House, and the EU trying to de-risk from China. The unprecedented visit of Ursula von der Leyen to India in February this year was also part of this EU approach of diversification.
Croatia: From Yugoslavia to Independence
Three Slavic tribes formally united to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes under Alexander of Serbia in December 1918. The Croats and the Serbians, however, had a rivalry of their own, and their mutual antagonism shaped the volatility of the nascent kingdom throughout the 1920s.
In 1929, King Alexander reorganised the Kingdom and revised the constitution to form six new republics of Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia, organised on the basis of river valleys, with Kosovo and Vojvodina as two autonomous provinces. Collectively this entity was named Yugoslavia (land of the south Slavs) by Alexander.
With the ethnic rivalries intact, Yugoslavia was occupied by the Nazis in World War II, and was liberated by Joseph Broz Tito and his group of communist Partisans in 1944-45. Thus was laid the foundation of the Second Yugoslavia, roughly modelled on the Soviet system.
Nationalist feelings among the various communities remained high and continued to influence tensions within Yugoslavia. The death of Marshal Tito exposed the inherent vulnerabilities of the communist state. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany acting as strong catalysts, Yugoslavia finally disintegrated in 1991.
Croatia and Slovenia were the first to break out and were recognised as members of the United Nations on May 22, 1992. Croatia joined NATO in 2009 and the EU in 2013.
India-Croatia Ties: The beginning
India was one the major non-European countries to recognise the independence of Croatia in May 1992 and diplomatic relations were established in July the same year. Croatia opened its diplomatic mission in New Delhi in February 1995 followed by the establishment of the Indian mission in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, in April 1996. India upgraded the relationship to the ambassadorial level in January 1998.
The relationship has remained cordial since the days of Yugoslavia, when Croatia accounted for more than two-thirds of bilateral trade. Tito, an important pillar of the Non-Aligned Movement, was of mixed Croat and Slovenia parentage and maintained very friendly relations with India and its then leadership.
The friendly linkages continued throughout the 1990s even when Croatia remained occupied with the ethnic conflicts that followed the disintegration of Yugoslavia.
Strategically located on the Adriatic Sea coastline, acting as a significant gateway to Europe, Croatia offers India a crucial opportunity in engaging with the continent. The location of Croatian ports such as Rijeka, Split and Ploče puts the country at the intersection of key European transport corridors, such as the planned Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).
Its geographic location makes Croatia a potential hub in the ambitious India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), which aims to promote Indian trade with Europe through the Mediterranean. Extension of IMEC to the Adriatic will connect India with the Central and Eastern European nations that are also part of the Three Sea Initiative (3SI), a north-south axis of trade and energy cooperation among 12 countries (including Croatia).
As per data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, bilateral trade with Croatia has gone up in recent years. From $199.45 million in 2017, it increased to $337.68 million in 2023. India primarily exports medicines, chemicals, machinery, apparels, and other consumer items. Croatia, on the other hand, has found Indian markets welcoming of its chemical products, precision instruments, timber products, rubber articles and animal and vegetable fats and oils among others.
The cultural and civilisational connect between India and Croatia, though not often talked about, is deep-rooted. It was a Croatian scholar, Ivan Filip Vezdin, who printed the first copy of a Sanskrit grammar textbook in 1790. The Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenkovic, presented a copy of this book to PM Modi during this visit.
'Presented to the Indian Prime Minister a reprint of Vezdin's Sanskrit Grammar – the first printed Sanskrit grammar, written in Latin in 1790 by scientist and missionary Filip Vezdin (1748–1806), based on the knowledge he gained while living in India from Kerala Brahmins and local manuscripts,' Plenkovic posted on X.
The Croatians also played an important role in the construction of the Church of Sao Braz in Goa in the 1560s. Indian cultural traditions remain a significant attraction in Croatian universities today.
PM Modi's visit, thus, is aimed at giving new energy to bilateral relations with Croatia and facilitating India's broader engagement with the Balkans, and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), which has seen significant Chinese investments through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It is imperative that India specifically focuses on this region and does not let its engagement with Western Europe guide its relations with the CEE countries, which are at the crossroads of Europe and Asia and many of whom support India's bid for permanent membership in the UNSC.
Aman K Pandey is a Research Associate with the Indian Council of World Affairs, Sapru House.
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