HEAD OF NATO ASSEMBLY SECURITY SUBCOMMITTEE VISITS CROATIAN PARLIAMENT

ZAGREB, March 2 (Hina) - The chairman of the Security Subcommittee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Vahit Erdem, visited the Croatian Parliament on Tuesday and had separate meetings with Parliament Chairman Vladimir Seks and members of the Croatian parliamentary delegation to the NATO Assembly, a statement from the Croatian Parliament said.#L# Erdem and his associates were interested in current security issues, the reform of the Croatian armed forces, the level of relations with neighbouring countries, and the promotion of overall cooperation between Croatia and NATO. Seks said he was pleased with the visit of the delegation of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly as well as with an announced visit of the NATO secretary general and the NATO Assembly chairman. He added that such visits enabled Croatia to present in the best possible way its views and achievements in meeting Euro-Atlantic criteria. Seks informed his guest of the role of the Croatian Parliament in passing defence and security legislation and of the achievements in the domain of civil control of the armed forces. The head of the Croatian parliamentary delegation to the NATO Assembly, Kresimir Cosic, and members of the delegation Marin Jurjevic and Velimir Plesa informed Erdem of Croatia's political priorities, including the building of civil society, the return of refugees, the protection of minority rights, cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, mine clearance, the reform of public administration and the judiciary, and the role of the media in society. Also discussed were security issues relating to regional cooperation in curbing international drug, human and arms trafficking. Special attention was devoted to the reform of the Croatian defence system. Erdem said that he would like to see Croatia as a NATO member as soon as possible, because it played a very important role for the security and political stability of the region, the statement said. (Hina) vm