Ambassador Neven Jurica of Croatia, Fatos Tarifa of Albania and Nikola Dimitrev of Macedonia took part in a round-table discussion on the US-Adriatic Charter organised by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
The second anniversary of the signing of the charter will be marked on 2 May in the Albanian capital of Tirana.
Speaking about progress the three countries made in reforms in the defence sector and in the strengthening of democracy and market economy, the ambassadors said that Croatia, Albania and Macedonia deserved to be invited to NATO at the alliance's summit in 2006.
Croatia's Jurica said that the three countries should be evaluated according to their individual progress on the path toward NATO.
He added that Croatia strongly supported NATO's policy, missions, operations and initiatives and would continue looking for how much it could concretely contribute to the alliance, on its own and in cooperation with other countries.
The diplomat recalled that a Croatian contingent was engaged in NATO's mission in Afghanistan and that Zagreb would consider other possibilities for its contribution to both military and civilian efforts in that Asian country.
Jurica said that his country was also backing the efforts of the international community aimed at establishing peace, stability and democracy in Iraq. In this context he said that 15 ill Iraqi children were treated and six Iraqi forensic experts were trained in Croatia. Croatia is planning to help in the training of Iraqi forces in Jordan. which is expected to begin in July this year.
Janusz Bugajski, the CSIS East Europe Project director, who moderated the debate, said that Croatia had made an extraordinary progress in meeting criteria for its admission to NATO.
Asked by reporters whether a stumbling block to Croatia's admission to NATO was its failure to send its troops to Iraq and its failure to sign a bilateral agreement on non-extradition of US nationals to the International Criminal Court (ICC), Bugajski said that a part of the problem lied with Croatia's vacillation to show its strong support to the United States while it was trying to joint the European Union.
This may be wrong to some extent given that countries such as Romania and Bulgaria expressed strong support to the USA without jeopardising their entry to the EU, he added.