INTERNATIONAL MILITARY COOPERATION

NATO membership is one of the key Croatian national priorities. Since the Republic of Croatia become a member of NATO's ‘Partnership for Peace’ (PfP) program in May 2000, the military cooperation with NATO has intensified significantly. One of the major Croatian PfP activities has been participation in international military exercises.

Croatian military officers have participated in UN peacekeeping missions since 1999, in Sierra Leone and Ethiopia/Eritrea. Positive results and evaluations of those missions are leading to increasing number of such missions in the future. Croatia thus takes its responsibility for world peace and actively contributes to peacekeeping and international security as well as reflects the compliance of its military with NATO standards.

In 2002, the Republic of Croatia will, for the first time, host a multinational PfP military exercise, called “Taming the Dragon – Dalmatia 2002”.

Also, joint military exercises have been undertaken with U. S. Armed Forces.