WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Hina) - Croatia should create mechanisms for the effective protection against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the United States will help it in such bids, Kresimir Cosic, a member of the
Croatian parliament and the head of the Croatian delegation to NATO's parliamentary Assembly, said in Washington on Friday.
WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Hina) - Croatia should create mechanisms for the
effective protection against the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction, and the United States will help it in such bids, Kresimir
Cosic, a member of the Croatian parliament and the head of the
Croatian delegation to NATO's parliamentary Assembly, said in
Washington on Friday.#L#
Cosic led Croatia's parliamentary and government delegation that was
on the tour to the United States this week. Croatia's representatives
held talks with officials in several US departments, Congress and
representatives of the Coast Guard on cooperation in prevention of
proliferation of nuclear chemical and biological weapons as well as of
conventional arms. American experts will help Croatia to pass laws and
ensure protection mechanisms so as to make it impossible for those
sorts of arms, material and technology to end up in the hands of
terrorist organisations.
"Croatia is at a point where different corridors intersect, which are
not connected with the trafficking in drugs and human beings but also
very sensitive materials that pose a security threat to the modern
world," Cosic told reporters after the end of the visit to the United
States.
US inspectors are currently in the Adriatic ports of Rijeka and Split
and will soon visit Dubrovnik so as to advance the procedure of the
control of cargo and prevention of the transit of dangerous
materials.
Cosic warned that Croatia had not yet had a developed system for
curbing the arms smuggling and that it should develop adequate
mechanisms before any tragedy might occur.
All this force us to be more cautious and to upgrade the security
level, Cosic said adding that his country has to develop the said
mechanisms also because of its attempts to enter the European Union
and NATO.
He went on to say that better coordination between relevant ministries
and the intelligence service should be established for this purpose.
Cosic said that Croatia's 6,000-kilometre-long coastline was
inadequately protected and therefore the establishment of the Coast
Guard was necessary. This was a topic of the talks between Croatia's
delegation and the US Coast Guard representatives.
Cosic held talks with Charles English, the director of the the State
Department's office for central and southern Europe, and with
Congressman Doug Bereuter, the head of the NATO Parliamentary
Assembly, on Washington's support to Croatia's bids to join the
Alliance soon.
Cosic told reporters that he believed that the talks had shown that
Croatia had the reason to expect stronger support in light of the fact
what the new Croatian government was making efforts to settle not only
political but also security issues.
He added that it was necessary for the Ivo Sanader cabinet to make
some concrete and pragmatic moves to strengthen Croatian-American
cooperation.
Regarding the United States' wishes about the deployment of Croatia's
troops in Iraq, Cosic said more intensive engagement of Croatia in
peace missions in the future could be expected, and the Croatian
parliament would discuss the issue of the deployment of Croatian
soldiers in Iraq when condition were met for this step.
Commenting on Washington's efforts to ensure Croatia's signature on an
agreement on non-extradition of U.S. nationals to the International
Criminal Court, Cosic said that joint teams of legal experts would be
set up to seek the best possible solution of this issue.
(Hina) ms