Addressing a group of professors and students of this prestigious university, Grabar Kitarovic stressed that Croatia made significant progress in the process of joining NATO and the European Union by establishing democracy and market economy as a condition for joining the associations.
She said the Government invested all efforts to implement the Action Plan for locating runaway general Ante Gotovina so as to remove the last obstacle and reach full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia which is a condition for the launching of Croatia's EU membership talks.
Grabar Kitarovic said Croatia was also successful in implementing the Action Plan for NATO membership.
One of the questions to Minister Grabar Kitarovic was why Croatia wanted to join the EU so quickly and lose its national identity only 15 years after gaining independence. Grabar Kitarovic said that none of the countries that joined the EU lost their national identity or showed desire to leave this association. She said that Croatia was motivated to join the EU and ensure security stability, and social, democratic and economic growth inside the association.
Speaking about a long-standing border dispute with Slovenia, Grabar Kitarovic said Croatia was thinking to turn to international arbitration, but added that Slovenia had not yet agreed to approach arbitration.
Grabar Kitarovic is on a visit to New York where she attended the 60th UN General Assembly.