​Six Chinese police officers to patrol with Croatian colleagues during peak tourist season

A ceremony was held in Dubrovnik on Sunday to mark the deployment of six Chinese police officers in Croatia as part of the Safe Tourist Season project, launched in 2006. Over the next month, the Chinese police officers will be working with their Croatian colleagues at three locations: in Zagreb, Dubrovnik and Plitvice Lakes National Park. Next year they plan to stay two months.

Their deployment is based on a cooperation agreement between the Croatian Ministry of the Interior and the Chinese Ministry of Public Security.

The Chinese Ambassador to Croatia, Zhaoming Hu, said that the presence of the Chinese police would give Chinese tourists an even greater feeling of security during their stay in Croatia.

"This is only the second such cooperation between China and another country. Our relations today are the best in history. The number of Chinese tourist arrivals is increasing very rapidly. Last year the increase reached nearly 60 percent and this year we expect the same. After the Croatian national football team made it into the World Cup final, the number of Chinese tourists will certainly rise further. We hope to have our police in Split or Istria next year," Hu said.

Tin Lixiao of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security said that the cooperation was benefiting both countries. "We are promoting mutual trust and understanding, and are also bringing the people of Croatia and China closer together. I believe this cooperation will be stronger and stronger," he said.

The Safe Tourism Season project includes foreign police officers, and the first to join the project were Hungarian police, in 2006.

"Every year there are more and more colleagues from other countries. This year we will have 89 police officers from 20 police organisations from 18 countries. We have decided to deploy the Chinese police officers, who are here for the first time, in twos to locations with the largest number of Chinese tourists, depending on an assessment. That will contribute to the security of their tourists," deputy national chief of police Zeljko Prsa said.

(Hina)

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