TIRANA, Feb 12 (Hina) - The Croatian, Albanian and Macedonian heads of state on Wednesday voiced intention to work on fully accessing European and transatlantic institutions. They expressed conviction that Europe would not be fully
united until all Southeastern European countries joined its structures.
TIRANA, Feb 12 (Hina) - The Croatian, Albanian and Macedonian heads
of state on Wednesday voiced intention to work on fully accessing
European and transatlantic institutions. They expressed
conviction that Europe would not be fully united until all
Southeastern European countries joined its structures. #L#
"Our final target is our countries' full integration with Europe
and transatlantic associations," says a joint statement issued
after a meeting in Tirana of Croatian President Stjepan Mesic with
the presidents of Albania and Macedonia, Alfred Moisiu and Boris
Trajkovski.
The three presidents met for the first time in Prague in November,
when NATO invited seven members of the Vilnius Group to join it and
assessed that the time for Croatia, Albania and Macedonia to join
had not arrived yet.
At the time, the three heads of state agreed that the three
countries would support each other so that they may enter NATO as
soon as possible.
In Wednesday's statement, the three presidents stress the
"historic value of the Prague summit" and "the policy of open doors"
which had been confirmed then.
They also stressed their intention to step up democratic, economic,
defence and other reforms, the protection of human and minority
rights and the fight against international terrorism, organised
crime and corruption, all these being preconditions for accession
into Euro-Atlantic associations.
The statement says that the three presidents had discussed progress
in the drafting of a "friendship charter" between the three
countries and the United States, "which will stimulate our joint
goals".
The charter, said Trajkovski, would be signed in Washington in
March.
The three also tackled the Iraqi crisis, stressing that the Saddam
Hussein regime needed to be disarmed as the U.N. had requested, or
face consequences. They added that "our countries will endorse
international community actions against this threat to all".
Sources close to the Croatian president said before the meeting
that the three countries' cooperation did not bring into question
the firm principle of individual entering Euro-Atlantic
associations, on which Croatia was insisting.
(hina) lml sb