CROATIA EXPECTS PRAGUE SUMMIT TO CONFIRM "OPEN DOORS" POLICY

ZAGREB, Nov 18 (Hina) - Croatia expects NATO to confirm its policy of "open doors" at the Prague summit on November 21-22 and considers it less important with which countries it will be invited to join NATO at some point in the future, a source at the President's Office said on Monday. #L# It is realistic to expect that the Prague summit will only "clearly proclaim the policy of open doors," a senior official at the office said, stressing that Croatia had never been mentioned as one of the countries which could be invited to join NATO in Prague. At the Prague summit NATO should forward membership invitations to Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, which will be formally admitted at the 2004 summit in Krakow. "We haven't undergone any formal cycle of the MAP", NATO's Membership Action Plan, while other countries that are to be invited, as well as Albania and Macedonia, which will not be invited, have already undergone several cycles, the source said. The source confirmed that no formal security alliances would be established among countries that will be left outside NATO, i.e. among Zagreb, Tirana and Skoplje, but the countries would have to step up cooperation in order to help each other access NATO. Croatia joined Partnership for Peace in 2000, last year it joined the Vilnius Group and in 2002 it joined the MAP. It does not matter with which countries Croatia will join NATO because joint accession does not mean "pushing Croatia back into the region", the source said. Croatia's delegation at the summit of NATO heads of state and government and the Euro-Atlantic Council will be headed by President Stjepan Mesic. It will include Foreign Minister Tonino Picula, Defence Minister Zeljka Antunovic and Croatian Army Chief- of-Staff Petar Stipetic. The President and ministers should hold numerous bilateral meetings during the summit. (hina) rml