In his address, Roncevic highlighted Croatia's determination to continue its participation in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and announced the possibility of increasing the Croatian contingent in the future, according to a Croatian Defence Ministry statement.
Croatia has been involved in the ISAF since before NATO took charge of the mission and has enhanced its cooperation with the NATO member states under whose command the Croatian troops are operating as well as with other troop-contributing countries, the minister said.
He said that Croatia respected calls from Afghanistan for long-term involvement and was determined to support the government in Kabul in its efforts to exercise its authority in the entire territory of the country in order to create conditions for the Afghan people to build their future on their own.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer emphasised NATO's resoluteness to continue its mission as long as necessary and broaden its activities to all areas of Afghanistan. He said that the key to the mission's success lay in strengthening state institutions.
In the afternoon the Croatian delegation attended a meeting of defence ministers from the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, where most of the ministers from the partner countries called on NATO to include the partner countries in political consultations, decision preparation and troop planning.
Most of the ministers from the partner countries stressed the importance of operational capabilities for the preparation of troops for operations. They also proposed that officers from the partner countries should be included in NATO's command structure, the statement said.