Minister Grabar-Kitarović on a working visit to Washington

Minister Grabar-Kitarović assessed the relations between the Republic of Croatia and the United States as good and on the rise. She stressed the establishment of joint partnership in the process of strengthening the security in the region aimed at widening the stability and safety zone in the territory of South-Eastern Europe. At this point, she emphasised Croatia's role in the U.S. Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), which resulted, in June this year, in the signing of bilateral Agreement on cooperation and prevention of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems and related materials at sea.

Speaking of NATO, Minister Grabar-Kitarović stressed Croatia had a responsibility to inform its citizens of the organisation and of the importance of NATO membership to Croatia, in order for the citizens to, on the grounds of total information, make their own judgements on the organisation. The Minister added the Republic of Croatia expected to receive, at the next summit, an invitation to become a NATO member country.

In the context of relations between Croatia and the European Union, Minister Grabar-Kiatrović stressed that regional co-operation was an important factor in the development of relations within the Euro-Atlantic integrations. She emphasised Croatia, as the region’s advance country, was determined to continue taking over the responsibility for making the South-Eastern Europe stabile, but stressed the individual approach was the most effective method in implementing reforms in South-Eastern European countries.

Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović made all the participants familiar with the activities the Republic of Croatia was undertaking in order to improve co-operation with the countries in the region.

In the end, the Minister said she expected the EU enlargement process to continue and Croatia to start its EU negotiations soon. This would send a favourable signal to the entire region, because access to the Euro-Atlantic integrations would be granted when all the required membership conditions were met.