Ministerial meeting of the US-Adriatic Charter held in Dubrovnik

Today, 7 August 2004, marks the end of a three-day ministerial meeting of the US-Adriatic Charter in Dubrovnik, where Croatian Foreign Minister Miomir Žulul received Macedonian Foreign Minister Ilinka Mitreva, Albanian Foreign Minister Kastriot Islami US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Stephens Kathleen Stephens

Joint Statement of the Foreign Affairs Ministers
of the Republic of Albania, Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Macedonia
on the Occasion of the Informal Ministerial Meeting of the US-Adriatic Charter
Dubrovnik, 5-7 August 2004

1. We, the Foreign Affairs Ministers of the Republic of Albania, Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Macedonia, together with the US Government representatives, have met in Dubrovnik to reaffirm our commitment to the principles of cooperation of the US-Adriatic Charter, and to invigorate our joint efforts leading to our countries' accession to NATO and the EU.

2. We will keep supporting each other in our shared strategic aim of achieving the full integration in the European and Euro-Atlantic structures, while developing our cooperation also in order to enhance stability and prosperity in the entire region, assisting and encouraging, especially, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro in their reform efforts.

3. We express our gratitude to the USA for its support to our common objectives, providing a crucially important transatlantic dimension to our cooperation.

4. We reiterate our full support to the North Atlantic Council's Istanbul Summit Communiqué, to NATO's policies and missions. We strongly support NATO's engagement in Afghanistan and the Alliance's efforts to contribute to the stabilisation of Iraq. In particular, supplementing our countries' individual contributions, we will expand our participation in the ISAF Operation in Afghanistan by sending our joint military medical team. As one of our priorities, we will be exploring any other contribution we may be able to provide, both individually as well as jointly, to the Alliance in its operations.

5. We express, once again, our satisfaction with the Istanbul Summit's concrete reaffirmation of NATO's Open Door policy vis-à-vis our three countries. We reaffirm our strong commitment to fulfil, before the next Summit, the criteria for the invitation to begin Accession Talks with NATO.

6. We will keep deepening and intensifying our close coordination and overall cooperation, exchange of experiences and expertise, related to the processes of accession of our countries to the EU and NATO, as well as to the efforts to stabilise and integrate the entire region in the European and Euro-Atlantic institutions.

7. We have agreed upon a six-months Action Plan of our joint activities, coordinated by the Republic of Croatia. It encompasses a series of high level meetings, notably, on top of regular working contacts, a meeting of the Presidents of Parliament, Foreign Affairs Ministers formal meeting at the beginning of November and a Defence Ministers meeting, exercises, as well as diplomatic and defence consultations, seminars and conferences, dealing with the issues of public relations, NATO enlargement process, NATO's «out of area» operations, combat against international terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, organised crime and trafficking in human beings.