ZAGREB, Feb 8 (Hina) - Croatia is able and ready to assume full responsibility for membership in NATO, Croatian Foreign Minister Miomir Zuzul said in an address at a conference on security in Munich on Saturday, the Foreign Ministry
said in a statement.
ZAGREB, Feb 8 (Hina) - Croatia is able and ready to assume full
responsibility for membership in NATO, Croatian Foreign Minister
Miomir Zuzul said in an address at a conference on security in Munich
on Saturday, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.#L#
Zuzul and Defence Minister Berislav Roncevic are heading a state
delegation attending the 40th Munich conference on security policy.
Zuzul delivered his speech as part of discussions about NATO's future.
Addressing the conference, he thanked NATO Secretary-General Jaap de
Hoop Scheffer for not leaving out South-East European countries when
commenting in his introductory speech on the future of the Alliance.
Zuzul said that NATO's most successful mission was the one in the
Balkans and called for the continuation of
NATO's engagement in the region. He said he saw NATO's future in the
integration of the region into the European Union and NATO and voiced
satisfaction with the fact that seven countries, including Slovenia,
were invited to join NATO at its last conference in Prague.
He said he hoped that Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro
would welcome Croatia's membership in NATO with the same enthusiasm
Croatia demonstrated with regard to Slovenia's full NATO membership.
He also called for considering Albania's and Macedonia's NATO
membership.
Following Zuzul's speech, the NATO Secretary-General addressed the
participants, stating he was confident that Croatia would continue on
the path towards full NATO membership.
Bosnian Foreign Minister Mladen Ivanic, who also attended the
conference, supported Zuzul's address, stating that Croatia's
admission to NATO offered hope for Bosnia's aspirations to become a
NATO member.
Minister Zuzul met a number of foreign officials on the margins of the
conference, the most important being US Secretary of Defence Donald
Rumsfeld, who will visit Zagreb on Sunday, Acting Assistant Secretary
of Defence Mira Ricardel, US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the leader
of Germany's Christian Democratic Union party, Angela Merkel, US
Senator Jon Kyl, the chairman of the European Parliament's foreign
policy committee, Elmar Brok, Slovene Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel,
Macedonian Foreign Minister Ilinka Mitreva, and Bosnian Foreign
Minister Mladen Ivanic.
The minister held a separate meeting with Bulgarian Foreign Minister
Solomon Isaac Passy and gave an interview to Bavarian Radio.
In a statement for Croatian Television, Zuzul said that Croatia's
relationship with NATO was developing in the right direction and that
comments received by the Croatian delegation were very good.
The Munich conference, which is being held this weekend, has pooled
ministers of foreign affairs and defence and other senior officials
from more than 30 countries. It focuses on NATO's future, relations
between the United States and Europe, and the future of the Near and
Middle East.
(Hina) rml