Croatia has so far worked very well and progressed on that road (towards full NATO membership). Croatia today is much closer to NATO membership than yesterday, Minuto-Rizzo told reporters after the meeting.
As regards Croatia's entry into the alliance, all member-states will decide on the matter by consensus, said the NATO official, who was on a two-day official visit to Zagreb.
Minister Grabar Kitarovic said that today's talks had focused on Croatia's fulfilment of NATO membership criteria, reforms in the judiciary, the return of refugees and property restitution, and Croatia's contribution to the stability of southeastern Europe as well as to peace operations worldwide.
She announced that the authorities would launch a campaign to inform the Croatian public of advantages of NATO membership. The alliance's 's senior official arrived in Zagreb also for this purpose.
Minuto-Rizzo said that the campaign should assure the Croatian public that NATO membership would be a good choice for Croatia and show that NATO was a political rather than a military alliance of the greatest democracies in the world.
The Croatian minister added that the authorities should present NATO in the proper light so that the alliance would no longer be associated with military bases and engagement in military operations.
We must present NATO in the proper light as an organisation of sovereign states which plays an important political role in the promotion of democracy and market economy values, she added.
The NATO official, who was also received by Croatian Defence Minister Berislav Roncevic, refuted allegations that the alliance required its member-states to obtain heavy military equipment and supersonic jets.
We have come here to help Croatia for full membership and it is of vital importance for us that the country has the correct picture of the alliance and brings the right decision, he said in this context.