BRUSSELS BRUSSELS, Jan 13 (Hina) - Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader met NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Brussels on Tuesday for talks on Croatia's efforts to join the North Atlantic alliance.
BRUSSELS, Jan 13 (Hina) - Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader met NATO
Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Brussels on Tuesday for
talks on Croatia's efforts to join the North Atlantic alliance.#L#
"Our ambition is to receive an invitation for membership as soon as
possible," Sanader told reporters after the meeting, adding that
Croatia wanted to obtain the best possible status at the forthcoming
NATO summit, scheduled to take place in Istanbul in June.
"Croatia is ready to meet all the necessary criteria for membership of
NATO," Sanader said, noting that his government would give greater
priority to NATO entry than the previous government had. "This
government will have NATO on its agenda at least once a month," he
stressed.
Scheffer said the new Croatian government had shown commitment to
Euro-Atlantic integration processes, and added that NATO was ready to
help Croatia on its path to Alliance membership.
"This is a good start," the NATO secretary general said, announcing
his visit to Croatia in the second half of May.
A NATO official who attended the meeting told reporters that NATO
membership had also been a priority of the former Croatian government
of Ivica Racan, but that the impression was that the new government
wanted to speed up Croatia's entry into NATO, attaching equal
importance to the EU and the Alliance.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Croatia had to
continue with reforms in its defence system, ensure cooperation with
the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague and grant satisfactory status
to minorities, especially the Serbs.
The meeting also focused on cooperation in the region, and Sanader
said Croatia was ready to cooperate with neighbouring countries and
assist the international community in stabilising the region.
Also mentioned was Croatia's involvement in Afghanistan as a concrete
form of cooperation, the official said.
The Croatian delegation included Foreign Minister Miomir Zuzul,
Defence Minister Berislav Roncevic and the Ambassador to NATO, Anton
Tus.
After the meeting with Scheffer, the Croatian delegation left for
Strasbourg for talks with officials from the European Commission, the
European Parliament and the Council of Europe.
(Hina) vm sb