During his day-long visit to Croatia, the NATO general was received by Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, the head of the Croatian parliamentary delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Kresimir Cosic, and the Croatian Army Chief of Staff, Josip Lucic.
All of us hail the progress made in reforms in the defence sector, but this is only a small share of the political endeavours necessary for joining NATO, Kujat said and reiterated that for joining NATO Croatia needed the support of its citizens, parliament and the government.
The Croatian officials informed the NATO general of defence reforms and programmes aimed at strengthening the stability in the region. The talks also focused on future missions which Croatian soldiers will be part of once Croatia enters the alliance, Lucic said.
Kujat voiced optimism and stressed Croatia was on a good path. He thanked Croatia on its contribution to NATO's mission in Afghanistan and NATO's missions in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.
The NATO general stressed the importance of the geo-strategic and political role Croatia was invited to play in the region.
Asked whether Croatia would be ready in military terms for NATO membership if invited at the next NATO summit in 2005 or 2006, Kujat said that the military part of Croatia would be ready for joining the moment the entire country would be ready.
Asked to comment on a lack of public support to Croatia's bid to join NATO, General Kujat said recent opinion polls only showed the situation at the moment when they were conducted.
Kujat said that at the next meeting of the NATO Committee he would ensure support for the visit of Croatian parliamentarians to Croatian soldiers in the mission in Afghanistan.