NATO HQ 6 Dec . 2006	Press briefing by NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and President of Croatia, Stjepan Mesic News President of Croatia looks to 2008 during visit to NATO Multimedia Audio file MP3/4348kb JAAP DE HOOP SCHEFFER (Secretary General of NATO): A great pleasure for all of us here to meet President Mesic. I was in Croatia not that long ago, but the President's timing was excellent, so shortly after the Riga Summit where, of course, a number of important decisions on the region of the Western Balkans, more in general, but on the three nations having a Membership Action Plan like Croatia, more specifically were taken. It's crystal clear that the President and I discussed the Riga Summit, discussed the state of play on the reforms in Croatia, which are, of course, necessary—you read the Riga Declaration—to see if invitations can be issues. More specifically, if an invitation can be issued to Croatia at a NATO summit in 2008. Those reforms relate, to a certain extent, as you know, to the still-weak public support for NATO membership. But I'm very glad that the President himself is co-chairing an important body to see that that situation, the lack of public support, would change for the better. There are still reforms necessary in the sphere of the backlog in the judiciary in defence reform. I was able to tell the President that NATO will support Croatia wherever that is necessary. I explained that there is no automaticity as far as invitations in 2008 are concerned, but I also said, and you know this of me, quoting the John Lennon Beatles song, that Croatia is definitely on the final part of the "long and winding road" leading to NATO membership. And then the President said I can tell you, but I hope we'll not end like John Lennon did, and I said, no, that will definitely not be the case, because we'd like to see Croatia around the NATO table—by the way, around the European Union table as well—but that's not my responsibility. To cut a long story short, it was a pleasure to meet President Mesic again. His leadership will be very important and vital in the coming periods between, as we speak, a NATO summit in 2008. An important signal was given to the region, to the MAP countries, and of course, by definition, also to Croatia, and together, first of all in Croatia, we should make it happen that we'll see the day that Croatia reaches the end of the roach, which is at the same time stepping on the threshold and past the threshold of NATO membership. That was, of course, the key of our conversations. The President made a few remarks about the situation in the region as such, on the basis of the other important decision NATO Heads of State and Government took in Riga as far as Partnership for Peace for Serbia, for Montenegro and for Bosnia-Herzegovina were concerned. Mr. President, it was a pleasure to meet you again. Thank you very much for having come to NATO. STJEPAN MESIC (President of Croatia): All I can say is that I agree completely with what Mr. Secretary General said. What the Croatian leadership wishes to ensure a better life for its citizens. And we will be able to provide a better life for our citizens if we achieve two of our strategic goals. One of them is EU membership and the second one is NATO membership. Europe is united itself and of course Croatia belongs to Europe. But in order to feel safe in Europe and in order to be able to fulfil the tasks for which we are responsible, we need to become NATO members as well. When it comes to the reforms in our defence sector we have implemented practically all of them and we have practically adopted the standards of NATO. In our long-term development plan for our defence sector we have practically solved the problem of funding our army. Today we also mentioned the fact that Croatia has been participating in the missions, in the operations of NATO. In the past Croatia had to use the military assistance of others and now we are able to provide it to others. I thank Mr. Secretary General for the message which was sent from the Riga Summit, and that is that in 2008 we could get an invitation to NATO membership and that is to approach the final stage of the achievement of our strategic goal. MODERATOR: We have very limited time. Two short questions. Short, please. Q: First, for Mr. Scheffer, well, how is NATO going to help Croatia to achieve the membership in NATO in 2008 or whatever? And another question for Mr. Mesic, in Croatian, (SPEAKING IN CROATIAN)... DE HOOP SCHEFFER: Let me start by answering you that, as I said, there's no automaticity. It's not sure and certain that there will be invitations. But you read the Riga Declaration, if the reforms continue, where NATO will support. I do support myself and I can support, I think, Croatia. In the framework of generating public support, it's first of all a Croatian responsibility. I mean, that's not NATO in the first place. But NATO can  help and I can help by explaining what NATO is, why it is that when I'm in Kabul in Afghanistan I see Croatian jeeps and Croatian soldiers driving in front of my convoy. NATO can help in defence reform. NATO can help by spreading the message that two percent GDP for defence is important. A message, by the way, not only for Croatia but for a great number of NATO allies as well, as you very well know. As far as the other necessary reforms are concerned, where it goes on the fight against corruption, reforming the judiciary, NATO has helped in the different cycles in the Membership Action Plan. NATO can help and NATO will help in what, I hope I say, is the final stage. But I stress again, no automaticity. MESIC: (SPEAKING IN CROATIAN)... INTERPRETER: The question for Mr. President was is there a possibility to change the number of missions in which the Croatian soldiers participate and whether the type of their mandate could change. And the answer was, that Croatia will continue to participate in those actions, for which it will estimate that it can take part. However, when it comes to the type of the mission, that is the role of our soldiers, it will not change.