WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (Hina) - Croatia might receive the announcement of an invitation to join NATO at the summit the alliance is due to hold in Istanbul next year and be invited to become a full member at the summit after that, possibly
in 2006, Croatian Deputy Foreign Minister Ivan Simonovic said in Washington on Thursday.
WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (Hina) - Croatia might receive the announcement
of an invitation to join NATO at the summit the alliance is due to
hold in Istanbul next year and be invited to become a full member at
the summit after that, possibly in 2006, Croatian Deputy Foreign
Minister Ivan Simonovic said in Washington on Thursday. #L#
Simonovic is in the U.S. capital together with representatives of
Albania and Macedonia for talks with U.S. officials on the progress
Croatia, Albania, and Macedonia have made in preparations to join
NATO.
The talks at the Woodrow Wilson Institute were held with Douglas
Bereuter, chairman of the Subcommittee on Europe of the U.S. House
of Representatives Committee on International Relations.
Simonovic told Croatian reporters Bereuter said there was no
resistance to the further enlargement of NATO which might include
Croatia in either the NATO Parliamentary Assembly or the U.S.
Congress.
Asked if Washington exerted pressure on Croatia to arrest General
Ante Gotovina, who is wanted by the Hague war crimes tribunal, and
made the arrest and cooperation with the tribunal conditional on
admission to NATO, Simonovic said no.
Speaking about Croatia's upcoming parliamentary election,
Simonovic said in the U.S. Congress that all relevant political
parties and the majority of the population were agreed that
admission to the EU and NATO were foreign policy priorities.
Simonovic said that if there was a problem in Croatian-American
relations it was the fact that the U.S. had other priorities at the
moment, including Iraq, Afghanistan, and its own parliamentary
elections.
Simonovic said there had been no talk about the signing of an
agreement on the non-extradition of U.S. citizens to the
International Criminal Court, on which the U.S. insists, or the
possibility of sending Croatian troops to Iraq.
On Friday Simonovic, Albania's Acting Foreign Minister Luan
Hajdaraga, and Macedonia's Foreign Minister Ilinka Mitreva will
attend the first ministerial meeting of the U.S.-Adriatic
Charter's Partnership Council, to be hosted by Deputy Secretary of
State Richard Armitage.
(hina) ha