On Tuesday, 21 September 2010, State Secretary for Political Affairs DSc Davor Božinović, on the margins of the 65th meeting of the General Assembly of the UN in New York, attended a meeting of the political directors from the states of Central and Southeast Europe with the Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of State, Philip Gordon, and with the Director of the National Security Council, Sherwood Randall.

The meeting was organised within the framework of the political consultations between the USA and its NATO allies from Central and Southeast Europe. They discussed the topics of international security with the emphasis on the fight against terrorism, Afghanistan, and the upcoming NATO summit, and the situation in the Southeast European area.

In regard of Afghanistan DSc Božinović said that the Republic of Croatia welcomed the parliamentary elections in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan that were organised for the first time independently by Afghan authorities. The elections took place on 18 September 2010 and showed the democratic progress of Afghan society since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, being an important step towards building independent society to the benefit of the Afghan citizens. He said that Croatia was proud of the role of its soldiers on ISAF, whose main effort is directed to training Afghan security forces. This being the only viable solution in the long term, Croatia ranks among the top states contributing to the desired outcome.

The participants referred to the recently adopted resolution of UN General Assembly on Kosovo and showed their pleasure over the compromise that would contribute to the stability of the region and its further integration into the European Union. The stressed the importance of starting the talks between Belgrade and Pristina under the auspices of the European Union, as well as of the upcoming elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina after which talks should be continued on the institutional reform..

The participants agreed to continue consultations on the level of political directors.

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