WASHINGTON, Aug 8 (Hina) - Cooperation between Croatia and the United States are on an ascending line, to which this visit will contribute, Croatian President Stipe Mesic said Tuesday after talks with US Defence Minister William
Cohen. Talks in the Pentagon focused on the general military and political situation in the Southeast of Europe, particularly Montenegro, and bilateral military cooperation. They agreed on the continuation of schooling and training of Croatian officers at American military academies and the extension of military technology cooperation. Mesic said Croatia counted on the United States to realise its membership in the NATO "sooner than we thought". "Croatia, however, must do the most itself," Prime Minister Ivica Racan said. The Croatian delegation was impressively greeted with all military honours at their arrival. At the Arlington national cemetery, before the laying of wreaths on the grave of
WASHINGTON, Aug 8 (Hina) - Cooperation between Croatia and the
United States are on an ascending line, to which this visit will
contribute, Croatian President Stipe Mesic said Tuesday after
talks with US Defence Minister William Cohen.
Talks in the Pentagon focused on the general military and political
situation in the Southeast of Europe, particularly Montenegro, and
bilateral military cooperation.
They agreed on the continuation of schooling and training of
Croatian officers at American military academies and the extension
of military technology cooperation.
Mesic said Croatia counted on the United States to realise its
membership in the NATO "sooner than we thought".
"Croatia, however, must do the most itself," Prime Minister Ivica
Racan said.
The Croatian delegation was impressively greeted with all military
honours at their arrival.
At the Arlington national cemetery, before the laying of wreaths on
the grave of an unknown hero, the Croatian national anthem was
intoned.
After a working lunch at the National foundation for democracy and
talks with representatives of the foundation and two party
institutes -- republican and democrat -- which have been active in
Croatia for years, Mesic and Racan continued the afternoon half of
the programme separately.
Mesic visited the Voice of America, met main director Sanford
Ungar, and answered questions by reporters of the Croatian,
Bosnian, Serb and Albanian programmes, after which he visited the
Roosevelt memorial.
At the same time, Prime Minister Racan held talks on economic
subjects with the Secretary of Finance, Lawrence Summers, Stanley
Fischer at the International Monetary Fund and Jeffrey Goldstein at
the World Bank.
Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula was the guest of the Centre
for strategic and international studies.
The Croatian state delegation visited the IBM centre and the
institute for electronic management where they got acquainted with
the achievements in the computerisation of the state
administration.
(hina) lml