The Croatian PM said this opening the second day of "Croatia Summit 2007 - Europe's New South". The summit gathered presidents of state or prime ministers from Croatia, Romania, Latvia, Moldova, Slovakia, Georgia and Kosovo as well as numerous officials from international organisations. Another 40 countries are represented at various political levels. Serbia has no representative, while Albanian PM Sali Berisha cancelled his attendance due to the election of a new parliament speaker.
Sanader believes it is in the interest of entire Europe to have signatories to the US-Adriatic Charter - Croatia, Macedonia and Albania - progress at the next NATO summit in Bucharest and help other countries of the region make headway in reform implementation and meeting condition for membership of the Euro-Atlantic security network.
Croatia, which is often mention as the most advanced country in the region, will advocate their admission into NATO, Sanader said, adding that the alliance was the best framework for political and economic development.
US Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried expressed hope that in the next decade Southeast Europe would become what Central Europe had been in the past decade - the heart of European institutions.
The greatest obstacle to that is the current situation in Kosovo, Fried said, adding that status quo was not sustainable and that recommendations of the UN special envoy for Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari were clear. He said that the US Administration believed that the balls were in the court of the UN Security Council which must adopt a decision on the future status of the province.
Fried also stressed that it must be explained to people in Serbia that a united Europe was their future.
Fried underlined that Croatia was an example of progress which helped countries of the region turn to democracy and responsible behaviour in the international community.