Opening the event, the meeting's host, Croatia's Ivo Sanader, expressed gratitude to the United States for launching this initiative for the establishment of the said charter which he said was useful for Croatia's efforts to join NATO.
NATO membership is a strategic goal of Croatia, that is aware that peace and security cannot be achieved in isolation. We recognise in NATO a unique efficient political and defence alliance based on the values of peace, freedom, democracy and market economy, the Croatian premier added.
Since the visit of U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1996, Cheney has been the highest US official to arrive in Croatia, Sanader said emphasising strong ties between Washington and Zagreb.
The U.S. Vice President expressed strong support to aspirations of the three members of the U.S.-Adriatic Charter for joining the Euro-Atlantic community, adding that Albania, Croatia and Macedonia had made great headway.
We deeply appreciate the fact that the three countries have already been engaged alongside forces of the United States and NATO in Afghanistan and Iraq, Cheney said.
He described the Dubrovnik meeting as an important event for the assessment of the progress they had made in preparing themselves for NATO membership.
Sanader, and his counterparts, Sali Berisha of Albania and Vlado Buckovski of Macedonia said they expected that their countries would receive a clear signal from the NATO summit in the Latvian capital of Riga about the timetable for their accession to the alliance.
Berisha and Buckovski also expressed the readiness of their countries to deploy their forces together with NATO and U.S contingents anywhere in the world.
After the meeting, PM Sanader said that there had been no mention of the agreement on non-extradition of U.S. soldiers to the International Criminal Court (ICC), i.e. its controversial Article 98, on this occasion. Sanader, however, expressed readiness of his country "to continue talks on the matter".
Asked by reporters whether the U.S. side asked for the deployment of Croatian troops in Iraq, the premier answered in the negative, adding that Croatia would continue playing an advisory role in that country.