CROATIA TO OFFICIALLY JOIN NATO'S PARTNERSHIP FOR PEACE PROGRAMME

FLORENCE, May 24 (Hina) - Croatia will officially become the 26th member of NATO's Partnership for Peace programme, which Croatia was not able to joining before the change in authority, in Florence on Thursday. At its regular session, held in Brussels on May 10, NATO invited Croatia to join Partnership for Peace programme, NATO Secretary General George Robertson invited Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula to sign a document on Croatia's joining the Partnership for Peace programme and participation in the ministers meeting of NATO and Partnership for Peace member-countries in Florence on May 24 and 25. Joining the Partnership for Peace programme is the greatest step Ivica Racan's government made in foreign policy so far and it clearly points that Croatia came out of the international isolation in which it was placed in the time of the old, Croatian Democratic Union's government. Turning its back to nationalist rhetoric and policy, Croatia became an example to its neighbours and an encouragement to forces in the entire region. Sharing our values, Croatia deserved its place in the Euro-Atlantic family, Robertson said after an invitation for joining the Partnership for Peace was forwarded to Croatia. Two basic conditions NATO set for Croatia's joining the Partnership for Peace was the strict respect of Bosnia-Herzegovina sovereignty and the Dayton Peace Agreement, as well as a non-discriminatory policy toward the return of Serb refugees to Croatia. Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan said the NATO decision was significant not only from the military point-of-view but from the economic too, because it will increase the trust of foreign investors in the stability and security of the country. (hina) it mm