Also taking part at the meeting are the officials from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as these three countries are on their way towards a full NATO membership, along which the biggest help they have received was from the Baltic Charter, a document they have signed with the US. The Baltic Charter served as an example for the signing of the US-Adriatic Charter in 2003.
Croatian representatives at the meeting include President Stjepan Mesić, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, and Defence Minister Berislav Rončević.
Minister Grabar-Kitarović stated at the press conference that the Brijuni meeting is a set of links between Europe’s geographical north and south that discussed concrete experiences of the three Baltic countries in their approaching the NATO, and that the countries members of the Initiative A3 expressed their expectations as to the future NATO membership. She added that the Initiative A3 members expect the Riga summit to give a clear signal that they will be evaluated based on their achievements and that the membership invitations will be extended as soon as possible.
The Brijuni meeting concluded that the US-Adriatic Charter is an excellent framework for the co-operation between the three countries, with the aim of establishing stability in the region, and the Charter members – Albania, Croatia, and Macedonia – have made considerable effort and achieved great progress in meeting the NATO membership criteria.
In the continuation of the meeting, the foreign ministers will discuss the topic How to ensure a full Euro-Atlantic integration of the South East Europe, while the defence ministers will take part at the session entitled Development of new forces: the challenges of defence reforms.
The participants of the extended Adriatic-Baltic-Atlantic ministerial meeting will also hold bilateral meetings during their stay on Brijuni.