"The support of the US Congress and Senate to Croatia's path to the EU is very important. In that context, Congressman Visclosky and Senator Voinovich strongly supported Croatia with their resolutions," the head of Croatia's delegation Kresimir Cosic said, adding the talks also focused on a meeting of NATO's Parliamentary Assembly in Quebec and the Summit in Riga, scheduled for November.
"We received a very clear support from our colleagues from the US delegation which is taking part in the work of NATO's Parliamentary Assembly. These standpoints will be very important for the final text which is being drafted for the NATO summit in RIga," Cosic said.
He said that the declaration, that will be adopted at the Riga summit, would be more concrete from those adopted in the past that mostly confirmed the "open door" policy.
It will indicate that Croatia will receive an invitation for full membership at the next enlargement summit, Cosic said.
The Croatian delegation also held talks with Pentagon officials about joint operations and the strengthening of NATO's capability in peace missions.
Everybody in the Pentagon and the State Department have recognised and commanded Croatia's contribution to concrete efforts of NATO which appreciates those partners who give a real contribution to important operations, he said.
Asked if the announced freezing of EU enlargement could have a negative impact on the pace of Croatia's drawing closer to NATO, Cosic answered in the negative.
"NATO is concentrated on concrete security issues and it has its priorities according to which Croatia is one of the strongest candidates for membership," the head of Croatia's delegation said.
Asked if the talks in the Pentagon focused on a disputed Artile 98 of the Agreement on the Non-Extradition of US Citizens to the International Court of Justice, the non-signing of which had cooled Croatia-US relations, Cosic declined to answer direclty, saying this was no longer a hot issue.
After Washington, the Croatian delegation will visit Minnesota.