During a parliamentary debate, HSP deputy Tonci Tadic said that the agreement allows the US Navy to use force or stop a Croatian ship suspected of being involved in a criminal activity without consulting the Croatian Navy.
"The use of force is not decided by the Croatian Navy but by the commander of a US Navy ship," Tadic said, proposing that the government should rather join the international container security initiative, which provides for searches of containers in ports.
The State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hidajet Biscevic, said that "the transfer of sovereignty is not provided for under any point of the agreement," but that the document provides for security in the Adriatic. "The agreement additionally protects our national interests," he stressed.
Mato Arlovic of the Social Democratic Party said that the proposed agreement, along with 12 other international agreements Zagreb had already signed, was a confirmation that Croatia, on its own and in cooperation with other countries, could prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Arlovic said that the agreement should specify cases when searches of passenger and tourist vessels were allowed.
Damir Kajin of the Istrian Democratic Party said he supported the ratification although Croatia would cede part of its legal sovereignty to the Americans, "who possess most of the weapons of mass destruction and abuse them the most."
"Croatia should participate in such measures, but it should also take the risk of retaliation from terrorist groups," Kajin said, recalling a bomb explosion in the northern Adriatic port city of Rijeka in the late 1990s after Croatia handed over an alleged Egyptian al-Qaeda leader to the United States.