The lecture was organised by the Atlantic Council Croatia and the NATO Public Diplomacy Division from Brussels.
Croatia is welcome in NATO and candidate countries will be given a message of strong encouragement at the forthcoming summit in Riga, said the Hungarian ambassador to NATO, Zsoltan Martinusz, adding he expected the alliance's enlargement to be on the agenda in 2008.
Martinusz said Croatia's membership in NATO would bring mutual benefit and contribute to stability in the region, adding that Croatia was considered the region's success story. Speaking of the advantages Croatia could gain from NATO membership, he highlighted the positive political and economic effects Hungary experienced after joining.
The lecture also heard that a member state's sovereignty was not brought into question upon joining NATO but strengthened, and that decisions in NATO were made by consensus of the member states.