Admiral Groothousen on Thursday held a news conference aboard the Spanish Navarra frigate, after the USS Roosevelt and four frigates from Great Britain, Italy, Spain and Turkey arrived in the biggest Croatian coastal city of Split on Wednesday morning.
On this occasion, the American spoke about the importance of Operation Active Endeavor
The operation"s mission is to conduct naval operations in the Mediterranean to actively demonstrate NATO's resolve in the campaign against terrorism and against smuggling in arms and human beings.
The admiral also recalled that this autumn Croatia's part of the Adriatic Sea would host a military exercise within NATO's Partnership for peace Programme. In this context he portrayed the cooperation between Croatia and NATO in the preparations for the exercise as being excellent.
Asked by reporters whether Split's military port of Lora may become a seaport base of NATO, Groothousen responded that answers to this question and to the question about Croatia's entry into NATO should be made by the Croatian people. He added that positions of all 26 NATO member-states should be harmonised about Croatia's admission to the alliance.
The visit of the NATO ships to Split was organised by the US Embassy in Croatia as part of international cooperation between NATO and Croatia.
The vessels will stay in Split until 9 April.