Foreign Ministers of Croatia, Albania and Macedonia signed today, 29 June 2004 in Istanbul, Turkey, a Joint Statement at the Summit of the North Atlantic Council – Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council
1. We, the foreign ministers of the Republic of Albania, Republic of Croatia and Republic of Macedonia, express our full support to the Statement from the North Atlantic Council summit in Istanbul, in its letter and spirit. We confirm the readiness of our countries to continue to offer and expand, whenever possible, our full and efficient contribution to NATO policy, initiatives, missions and operations.
2. We reiterate our dedication to achieving the full NATO membership as soon as possible, according to individual achievements. We will continue to strengthen and speed up all of the reforms necessary for achieving a higher level of overall compatibility and interoperability with the Alliance.
3. We express our satisfaction with the fact that the North Atlantic Council has confirmed NATO’s open door policy in relation to our respective countries, by continually reviewing the enlargement process. We express our satisfaction with the fact that the Alliance has welcomed our progress and recognised our contribution to regional stability and co-operation. We express our gratitude for the help the Alliance and member states are offering us in our reform endeavours. We are convinced that we will be able to satisfy the criteria for the start of the ascension negotiations with NATO before the next summit.
4. We will continue with the intensive co-operation between our respective countries in all of the important areas, helping each other along our way towards NATO.
5. We consider the co-operation within the US-Adriatic Charter to be an extremely important instrument for the strengthening of regional stability and general welfare. Our mutual objective is the integration of the whole region into the Euro-Atlantic structures. We firmly support and encourage Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Serbia and Montenegro, in their efforts to join the Euro-Atlantic integrations as soon as possible.
The Joint Statement was signed by the Croatian Foreign Minister Miomir Žužul, Albanian Foreign Minister Kastriot Islami and Macedonian Foreign Minister Ilinka Mitreva.
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