The foreign relations between Croatia and Italy are commenced in 1992, following the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the independence of Croatia. Relations are warm and friendly with robust bilateral collaboration.[1] The two nations have strong connectivity through tourism, immigration, foreign aid, and economic mutualism.
Italian is an official language in Istria County (in Croatia, due to the presence of Istrian Italians), while Molise Croats inhabit the Italian city of Campobasso. 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 in NATO. They share a 370 nautical-mile maritime border over the Adriatic Sea, with a small 12 mile region of Slovenia separating them by land.
Both countries are members of the European Union and Council of Europe, sharing the same official currency, the euro (€). Croatia has an embassy in Rome and general consulates in Milan and Trieste while Italy maintains an embassy in Zagreb and a general consulate in Rijeka, among other cultural organizations.
The foreign relations between Croatia and Italy are commenced in 1992, following the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the independence of Croatia. Italy was a key partner to Croatia following its statehood, providing critical political and economic support during the 2000s.[2] In 2007, Italy's president Giorgio Napolitano strained diplomatic relations by referring to the Yugoslav 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.[3] Croatian president Stjepan Mesić accused Napoletano of historical revisionism but the nations' diplomats quickly resolved the matter in Rome.[3]
Italy supported Croatia's admission to the European Union in 2013. A diplomatic row emerged between the two states in 2019, after Antonio Tajani, the President of the European Parliament, commented "Long live Trieste, long live Italian Istria, long live Italian Dalmatia, long live Italian exiles".[4] Tajani later apologized to the Croatian government clarifying his comments were not intended to imply that the Istrian and Dalmatian regions of Croatia were a part of Italy.[5] 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.[6] That year, the two nations signed a tri-party agreement with Slovenia 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 descent living in Croatia. There are also around 6,000 Molise Croats in Italy. In addition, there are around 21,000 registered immigrant Croatian workers in Italy.[9] Italian is an officially-recognized language in Croatia, with the majority of its speakers living in Istria 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.
The two countries share multiple bilateral free-trade agreements. Croatia exports around 14% of their total total annual export to Italy.[10] Trade between the two states totaled €8.64 billion in 2023, reaching an all-time high.
Croatia and Italy both maintain exclusive economic zones over the Adriatic Sea. Italy disputed the reach of Croatia's zone around the Italian part of the Adriatic in January 2008 claiming it violated an earlier agreement they made over "Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zones". The two states mutually settled the dispute later that year.[11] This zone is supervised by the Croatian Navy, which intercepted two Italian ships in 2008 and 2021, seizing their illegal fish, and escorting them back to Italian waters.[12] [13]
Croatia has an embassy in Rome, general consulates in Milan and Trieste, and consulates in Bari, Florence, Naples, and Padua.[14] Italy has an embassy in Zagreb, general consulate in Rijeka, Vice Consulate in Buje, Pula and Split, as well as Italian Cultural Institute and Foreign Trade Institute in Zagreb.[15]
See main article: List of twin towns and sister cities in Croatia and List of twin towns and sister cities in Italy. Croatia and Italy share a large number of sister cities between themselves.[16] [17] Many of these cities have Croatian and Italian-language versions of their name due to historic cultural diffusion.