The agenda of the Strasbourg events includes a session of the North Atlantic Council and a welcome ceremony for two newcomers, Croatia and Albania, which formally joined the alliance on 1 April when they deposited accession instruments in Washington.
This morning, German Chancellor Angela Merkel symbolically saw off leaders of the 28-strong bloc before they left Kehl by crossing the Passarelle des deux Rives pedestrian bridge over the Rhine to Strasbourg where they were welcomed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
At the welcome ceremony for Albania and Croatia, President Barack Obama of the United States, the depositary te Treaty of Washington, will deliver to the delegations of the newcomers copies of the treaty.
Croatia's delegation includes President Stjepan Mesic, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and several government ministers and other officials.
At the working dinner of the summit, which is being held on the alliance's 60th anniversary, in Baden Baden on Saturday evening, President Mesic said that as a newcomer to the alliance, Croatia now had no intention of just benefiting from its entry into the alliance but it would also like to give its contribution to the organisation's goals and missions.