ZAGREB/BRUSSELS, Oct 28 (Hina) - Croatia may join the countries which can count on an invitation to join NATO in 2006 already after the June 2004 NATO summit in Istanbul, Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula said after talks on
Croatia-NATO cooperation with the alliance's Secretary-General, George Robertson, in Brussels on Tuesday.
ZAGREB/BRUSSELS, Oct 28 (Hina) - Croatia may join the countries
which can count on an invitation to join NATO in 2006 already after
the June 2004 NATO summit in Istanbul, Croatian Foreign Minister
Tonino Picula said after talks on Croatia-NATO cooperation with the
alliance's Secretary-General, George Robertson, in Brussels on
Tuesday. #L#
During the half-hour face-to-face talks, it was established that
the intensive three-year cooperation had been mostly moving
upward, Picula said in a phone interview with Hina.
The minister said he had recalled several important events in the
Croatia-NATO relations such as the country's admission to
Partnership for Peace programme in May 2000, its joining the
Vilnius Group in 2001, and its admission to Membership Action Plan
(MAP) in May 2002. MAP membership formally marked the
institutionalisation of relations with NATO on the path towards
full membership, Picula said.
This year, besides the reform of the armed forces, Croatia
completed the first and started the second cycle of Membership
Action Plan, said Picula. As a rule, candidate-countries first must
complete the three cycles of the Action Plan to be able to count on a
membership invitation, Picula explained.
Asked how Robertson assessed Croatia's progress on the road to full
NATO membership, Picula said that there was "confidence built on
results".
"Croatia has created the image of a country which by reforming
itself and its armed forces, contributes to regional stability.
Croatia's achievements in the promotion of good neighbourly
relations in this part of Europe, which is still considered
insufficiently stable in political and economic terms, were
certainly noticed by NATO and they make one of the points we have
won," Picula said. He also said that in the past few years "Croatia
has changed its status of a country receiving security assistance
to the status of a country participating in as many as seven peace
operations around the world".
The Picula-Robertson meeting was held two weeks after the
presentation of a second national programme for NATO membership and
two months before Robertson is to hand over his post to his
successor, Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
(hina) rml sb