Croatia and Macedonia said on Tuesday (25 April) that they expect to get a clear signal from NATO in November that they will be invited to join the 26-nation Alliance soon after.

In the spirit of the 1998 US-Baltic Charter, in early May 2003, the three Balkan countries signed an Adriatic Charter with the United States, aimed at facilitating their integration into NATO.

Some seven months before the Alliance's summit in Riga in November, the foreign and defence ministers of the three Adriatic Charter countries and their Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian counterparts gathered for a two-day meeting Tuesday on Croatia's Brijuni islands. A US delegation, led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs Rosemary DiCarlo, is also taking part in the discussions.

The Adriatic Charter countries "expect from the Riga summit a clear signal that their achievements will be evaluated and that membership invitations will be sent as soon as possible," Croatian Foreign Minister Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a joint news conference with other participants in the Brijuni meeting, her Macedonian counterpart, Ilinka Mitreva, echoed those sentiments, and praised the productive partnership shared by the three countries.


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