President Mesic meets the NATO Secretary-General
The NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has commended Croatia for significant progress on the road towards NATO, calling on Zagreb to maintain the current pace of reforms.
Croatia is knocking on NATO's door and has made considerable progress in efforts to meet membership criteria, the alliance's secretary-general said in Brussels after meeting Croatian President Stjepan Mesic.
President Mesic meets the NATO Secretary-General
The NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has commended Croatia for significant progress on the road towards NATO, calling on Zagreb to maintain the current pace of reforms.
Croatia is knocking on NATO's door and has made considerable progress in efforts to meet membership criteria, the alliance's secretary-general said in Brussels after meeting Croatian President Stjepan Mesic.
During the hour-long talks with President Mesic, Scheffer also advised Croatia to keep up the current pace of reforms, explaining that the invitations which were to be sent to aspiring countries from the 2008 NATO summit in Romania had not been confirmed, but that the alliance was satisfied with Croatia's progress.
Apart from Croatia, Macedonia and Albania expect membership invitations from the Bucharest summit. Scheffer said that there would be no group accession and that each country would be assessed individually. He thanked President Mesic, the Croatian Government and citizens for their active role in NATO-led operations.
In this context, President Mesic reiterated that Croatia had turned from a country which needed international assistance during the aggression and war in the 1990s into a country privileged to be able to help others.
Croatian President told reporters that Scheffer and he had talked about steps Croatia was taking to accomplish its two objectives, entry into NATO and the European Union.
During the press conference, President Mesic and Scheffer were asked to comment on the process of forming the new Croatian government after the 25 November election and on the possible organisation of a referendum on Croatia's NATO membership bid.
The NATO Secretary-General declined to comment, explaining that it was not up to him to give his opinion on these issues.
President Mesic said that "the process of forming the government is proceeding well and within set time-frames", ruling out the possibility that Croatia might not get a new government on time.
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