BUCHAREST, March 26 (Hina) - Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan said in Bucharest on Tuesday that Croatia could join NATO's Membership Action Programme at a ministerial conference in Reykjavik in May.
BUCHAREST, March 26 (Hina) - Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan
said in Bucharest on Tuesday that Croatia could join NATO's
Membership Action Programme at a ministerial conference in
Reykjavik in May. #L#
"I expect Croatia to join MAP in Reykjavik in May," Racan told
reporters at the end of a summit of the prime ministers of ten
countries which make up the so-called Vilnius Group.
"This plan was very explicitly supported here at the summit by an
assistant to the U.S. Secretary of State, Richard Armitage," Racan
said.
Racan said the Bucharest summit was an important step for Croatia
towards its admission to NATO.
"The summit proves that we are really a full member of the Vilnius
Group and that Croatia is getting closer to NATO, one of the
strategic objectives of its policy," he added.
The Croatian delegation at the summit held meetings with the prime
ministers of all Vilnius member-states, including Lithuania's
Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas, with whom Racan discussed the process
of Euro-Atlantic integration.
MAP is a programme NATO initiated in April 1999. It is aimed at
assisting countries to implement political and defence reforms
necessary for meeting NATO standards.
Once it joins MAP, Croatia will have a status equal to that of other
members of the Vilnius Group.
(hina) rml