The upcoming visit of U.S. President George W. Bush to Croatia is proof of a very high level of friendship and partnership between the two countries, Croatian Foreign Affairs and European Integration Minister Gordan Jandrokovic said on Tuesday.
"Croatia is very pleased with the level of our relations and one of our foreign policy priorities is to continue advancing cooperation with the USA, a country that may well be called the world leader today," Jandrokovic told a news conference in the Croatian capital of Zagreb.
"The visit comes right after the NATO summit in Bucharest and we are confident that we will come together from Bucharest with an invitation for Croatia to join the alliance and that we will celebrate it here in Zagreb," Jandrokovic said ahead of Bush's visit to Croatia on April 4-5.
Jandrokovic said the United States was a major advocate of NATO expansion and of awarding Croatia a membership invitation.
In addition to its bilateral dimension, the visit confirms the important place and role Croatia has on the international scene and is a message to other countries in the region that reforms on the path of Euro-Atlantic integration do pay and bring results, the minister said.
He added that the visit would contribute to the promotion of Croatian-American relations as well as to regional cooperation and efforts to solve global issues.
The visit by President Bush and the invitation to join NATO will confirm Croatia's stability and progress and send a good signal to foreign investors, he said.
U.S. Ambassador to Croatia, Robert Bradtke, said Bush was coming to Zagreb to celebrate with Croatia the NATO membership invitation the country was expecting to receive and to acknowledge the great efforts it had made on the road to NATO, as well as to show other countries in Southeast Europe that the door to NATO would remain open for them if they implemented the necessary reforms.
Bush and his wife Laura will arrive in Zagreb aboard the Air Force One on Friday afternoon. Bush will meet Croatian President Stjepan Mesic and in the evening attend a dinner which will also be attended by members of the academic community, politicians, business people, cultural workers and athletes, Croatia's state secretary for political issues Bianca Matkovic said.
On Saturday morning, Bush will meet Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader at the government headquarters and give statements for the press. He is also expected to have a lunch with the presidents and prime ministers of the countries that will be awarded NATO membership invitations at the upcoming summit in Bucharest.
Source:Xinhua
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