ZAGREB, April 30 (Hina) - After his meeting with Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor in Zagreb on Friday, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a news conference that the alliance highly appreciated Croatia's contribution to the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan, and praised Croatian troops for doing excellent job.
ZAGREB, April 30 (Hina) - After his meeting with Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor in Zagreb on Friday, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a news conference that the alliance highly appreciated Croatia's contribution to the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan, and praised Croatian troops for doing excellent job.
Rasmussen, who arrived in to Zagreb for his first visit since Croatia joined NATO in April 2009, said the goal of the NATO mission in Afghanistan was to train Afghan forces and enable them to take over the responsibility for safety and security of their country.
It is our goal to transfer responsibility to the Afghans when circumstances allow, and therefore it is critical to train the Afghan security forces to gain required capacity, NATO's chief told the news conference he held together with PM Kosor.
We highly appreciate the Croatian army's participation in the mission in Afghanistan. Croatian soldiers are doing an excellent job, this Danish politician said.
Kosor added that Rasmussen's visit coincided with the voting in the Croatian parliament on the enlargement of the 300-strong Croatian contingent in Afghanistan by another 20 troops.
On Friday, Croatian lawmakers decided on the contingent's augmenting to 320 troops.
"During the talks with Rasmussen, I have pointed out that three Croatian units are participating in the training of the Afghan army and another two in the training of the Afghan police," the Croatian premier said.
"The NATO Secretary-General and we in the government agree that no effort should be spared to strengthen the Afghan army and police in order to enable them to operate on their own," Kosor said.
Rasmussen said he was particularly glad he was visiting Zagreb at the time the Croatian parliament was deciding on the enlargement of the Croatian contingent in ISAF.
This bears witness to the Croatian government's strong commitment to NATO, he added.
Kosor recalled that Croatia recently marked the first anniversary of its membership in NATO.
Croatia is currently participating in 14 peace missions worldwide.
She went on to say that Croatia was also committed to supporting Euro-Atlantic aspirations of other southeastern European countries.
"I underlined that we lobbied for Bosnia-Herzegovina being allowed to join NATO's Membership Action Plan (MAP), which recently happened," the Croatian official said adding that it was now important for Bosnia-Herzegovina to carry out all necessary reforms.
Rasmussen said that since he stepped into office, he had made two important decisions for southeast European countries.
In December 2009 we granted MAP to Montenegro and we did the same for Bosnia last week, he said calling on Bosnian political leaders to carry out reforms in their country which he said was a prerequisite for achieving the full potential of MAP.
The NATO chief commended the Croatian government for its efforts to facilitate the integration processes in the Balkans.
Speaking of the coming NATO summit in Lisbon in November, Rasmussen said NATO would like to be able to respond to the challenges of the 21st century, alongside conducting its fundamental task of defending the territory of its member-states.
Earlier on Friday, Rasmussen was received by President Ivo Josipovic. Upon his arrival in Zagreb on Thursday evening he met Foreign and Defence Ministers Gordan Jandrokovic and Branko Vukelic at a working dinner.
This was Rasmussen's first visit to Croatia since he was appointed NATO Secretary General at the summit in Kehl and Strasbourg on 4 April 2009. Croatia joined the Alliance on 1 April 2009 and the summit in Kehl and Strasbourg was the first one Croatia attended as a full member.
Former Danish prime minister Rasmussen stepped into office of the NATO Secretary General in August 2009.
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