Croatia in NATO

HISTORICAL DAY FOR CROATIA Croatia Has a NATO Invitation The premier and president agree that Croatia fully deserves the invitation to NATO. by Joseph Stedul Three candidates, but only two invitations were sent on Wednesday night, from NATO’s meeting in Bucharest, at which NATO expansion was discussed, and the acceptance of new members. Good news comes for Croatia and Albania, whilst Macedonia, thanks to Greece, has remained on the waiting list for entrance. Croatia’s leaders, led by premier Ivo Sanader and president Stjepan Mesic, did not hide their satisfaction with this development of events. This started after the statements of the minister of foreign affairs Gordan Jandrokovic in the television show “Otvoreno”, who commented from the NATO summit in Bucharest. Invitation was deserved - We have been awarded for everything that the parliament has done, the Cabinet led by Sanader, diplomacy, and my office – said president Mesic. He stressed that it would be good to reach a consensus on other Croatian strategic interests besides NATO. The fact that an invitation was sent is also a result of a process that began with Croatia’s  hard road to independence via the Croatian War of Independence in which 15,000 people gave their lives. Besides NATO, it is expected that Croatia receives an invitation for the EU soon. - Membership in NATO will be a stimulus to our partners on the other side of the table to accept Croatia as a full member of the European Union – said the premier. Without a referendum Parties and associations that demand a referendum for Croatia’s entry into NATO have no chance according to Sanader’s words. He said that Croatian citizens chose HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) because of Croatia’s entry into that military organization, even though between 65 and 75 thousand citizens have signed a demand to organize a referendum. Published: April 03, 2008 06:22h Source: http://www.javno.com/en/croatia/clanak.php?id=137158