BRUSSELS, Oct 4 (Hina) - Croatia has this year made qualitative progress in approaching NATO and by the end of this year or the start of next. it could join the Membership Action Plan and acquire the status of NATO membership
candidate, deputy head of the Croatian Mission to the NATO, Mario Horvatic, said on Thursday. Horvatic spoke to reporters of Croatian press and electronic media who are on a visit tot he EU and NATO since Wednesday under the organisation of the German foundation "Konrad Adenauer". "Croatia has in July made qualitative progress and has entered intensive dialogue with the NATO political section," which should soon end with Croatia's joining the MAP and the rest of the nine members of the Vilnius Group in which Croatia has recently acquired membership. Croatia handed its activity plan over to NATO in July. A lot will depend on events in Croatia, primarily on the passing of the Defenc
BRUSSELS, Oct 4 (Hina) - Croatia has this year made qualitative
progress in approaching NATO and by the end of this year or the start
of next. it could join the Membership Action Plan and acquire the
status of NATO membership candidate, deputy head of the Croatian
Mission to the NATO, Mario Horvatic, said on Thursday.
Horvatic spoke to reporters of Croatian press and electronic media
who are on a visit tot he EU and NATO since Wednesday under the
organisation of the German foundation "Konrad Adenauer".
"Croatia has in July made qualitative progress and has entered
intensive dialogue with the NATO political section," which should
soon end with Croatia's joining the MAP and the rest of the nine
members of the Vilnius Group in which Croatia has recently acquired
membership.
Croatia handed its activity plan over to NATO in July.
A lot will depend on events in Croatia, primarily on the passing of
the Defence Law, the drafting of a national security strategy and
the annual armed forces actions programme, Horvatic said.
After NATO receives relevant document and it assesses them
sufficient, Croatia should relatively quickly, perhaps by the end
of this year or the start of next, become a candidate for NATO, he
said.
Croatia is drawing up a programme which adds to its seriousness, and
it is very important that Croatia has fulfilled more goals than it
had announced.
The key problem, however, will be Croatia's future economic
development, because NATO is interested in how much Croatia would
be able to handle the reform of its armed forces.
"We have to drastically reduce the number of soldiers to 25,000 to
30,000 from the current 60,000," Horvatic said, stressing that the
problem of such a large number of personnel who will be left jobless
would try to be solved through their retraining to other offices
with the financial assistance of international institutions.
The Croatian reporters were acquainted with NATO's role in the
Balkans by Erik Sandalh from the crisis settlement department. He
said the best way to solve crisis was to prevent them escalating
into a war.
The international community failed in Bosnia-Herzegovina and
Kosovo because it did not manage to prevent armed conflicts. It had
to defuse tensions by sending large military contingents after the
war broke out, he said.
The crucial problem in the future of the region in which NATO is
active is the non-functioning of the judiciary in Kosovo, Sandalh
said, adding this was a problem which must be solved urgently
because crimes were not being processed.
The average detention time in Kosovo is between 45 to 50 minutes
because jails are overcrowded and the number of judges is
insufficient, although they do receive large salaries, he said.
(hina) lml