A Gift of Croatia to the World

During the High-Level Week of the 81st Session of the General Assembly, Bilateral Navigator was presented at United Nations Headquarters under the auspices of the President of the General Assembly, H.E. Dr Khalilur Rahman, with the participation of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia, H.E. Mr Andrej Plenković.

The complete bilateral collections of Bangladesh and Croatia, each comprising 192 volumes dedicated to their relations with every other member state of the United Nations, were donated on the occasion. The presentation took place immediately after the Prime Minister's address to the General Assembly, in the presence of the Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Dr Gordan Grlić Radman, former President of the Republic of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, the President of the 62nd Session of the General Assembly, Dr Srgjan Kerim, and the co-founders and supporters of the institution, who traveled from four continents for the occasion.

"I have not seen sources like this before, and this will make the lives of diplomats very easy. It will give a proper understanding of where our bilateral relations lie and where we can take them, because we know the potential by the numbers. This is a gift of Croatia to the world, to the diplomatic community, and to the community in general. This is a day I will remember for many years." — H.E. Dr Khalilur Rahman, President of the 81st Session of the UN General Assembly

The President of the General Assembly proposed that the collection be housed where delegates and visitors can browse it, that it be continuously updated as the world's relationships evolve, and that it be made available electronically, maintained by a growing global community of contributors.

"This is a fantastic contribution and innovation that Croatia gives, not only to diplomats, but to everybody: to businessmen, to people who travel, to those engaged in science, culture, and the economy. It can be helpful to everyone." — H.E. Mr Andrej Plenković, Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia

Thirty Years, One Building

For the author of the series, Ambassador Dr Siniša Grgić, the moment carried a personal weight. In the early 1990s he entered the same building holding the badge of a small non-governmental organization, the only Croatian NGO then accredited to the United Nations. Three decades later he returned with 18,528 titles: one volume for every bilateral relationship the world contains.

Before Bilateral Navigator, only about three percent of the world's bilateral relationships had ever been covered in book form, almost exclusively those of the largest powers. The series gives every relationship, between any two nations regardless of size, the same analytical attention: political and diplomatic ties, trade and investment, institutional frameworks, culture, and key comparative data, grounded in facts rather than perceptions. More than one thousand ambassadors and over six hundred honorary consuls worldwide have already contributed to the work.

"I checked how many bilateral meetings took place this week here: eleven hundred, only this week. Which means: this is more than relevant." — Dr Srgjan Kerim, President of the 62nd Session of the UN General Assembly, Chairman of the Bilateral Navigator Board of Senior Counselors

The Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs noted that the volumes had already become part of his working week in New York: a diplomatic book that eased his conversations with counterparts, presented as a gift at his bilateral meetings throughout the High-Level Week.

The event was strictly non-commercial: all volumes were presented as gifts, and the collections now reside with the Office of the President of the General Assembly and the Permanent Missions of Bangladesh and Croatia.