Grabar-Kitarovic was speaking at a meeting of the US-Adriatic Charter Commission about the efforts the Croatian government was making to convince a sceptical Croatian public of benefits of alliance membership.
"The key argument will be that NATO is an alliance of independent states that will bring Croatia not just greater security but also economic benefits, because greater security and a greater political stability will further bring more investments and more tourists," the Croatian minister said after meeting her counterparts from Macedonia and Albania and Assistant US Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried, with whom she also had a bilateral meeting.
The US-Adriatic Charter meeting was later joined by the foreign ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia, which had been given the green light at a recent NATO summit in Riga to join the Partnership for Peace programme.
Grabar-Kitarovic said that her address particularly focused on the government's communication strategy because NATO had noted in its declaration from the Riga summit that Croatia should work on increasing public support for alliance membership.
Only 33.7 Croats support their country's NATO membership bid, according to the results of an opinion poll conducted by Vecernji List newspaper last week.
The survey, carried out on November 28 and 29 on a sample of 900 respondents from across the country, showed that 44.4 per cent of those interviewed were against Croatia joining NATO.
Croatia presented its communication strategy to NATO a few weeks ago and is now preparing an action plan for its implementation.
Grabar-Kitarovic said that one of the aims of the strategy was to remove the prejudice that with NATO membership defence spending would increase. "On the contrary, you have less costs if you are part of a collective defence system."
The US assistant secretary of state said that Croatia's path to NATO was in the hands of the Croatian people and that it was up to the government to explain what alliance membership represented.
In Riga, NATO decided to continue to expand to include those countries that are ready. My president (George W. Bush) spoke of Croatia's candidacy with great respect. We assess every country on its own merits and will invite those that are ready. That is a good signal for Croatia, Fried said.