Meeting of Political Committee at Senior Level (SPC)
NATO Welcomes Slovenia's Pre-Membership Reform Timetable
12 March 2003
The NATO senior political committe, which reviewed Slovenia's
progress in NATO membership preparations, is satisfied with the
timetable of reforms that Slovenia is to carry out as a future NATO
member, said Slovenian Foreign Ministry State Secretary Samuel Zbogar
after meeting with NATO officials in Brussels.
The timetable is now to be enclosed in a letter, which Slovenia's
Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel is to send to Brussels to formally
confirm that the country is accepting its obligations to become a NATO
member and complying with the agreements reached at the two rounds of
accession talks that took place in January 2003. The letter will most
probably be sent on 24 March, that is one day after Slovenia's
referendum on NATO membership is held, the state secretary announced.
"The deadline for sending the letter is 26 March, when NATO is
planning to sign accession protocols with seven new countries,"
Zbogar also said, adding that Minister Rupel will obliviously be able
to send the letter to NATO Secretary General George Robertson only if
the referendum outcome is in favour of NATO.
It is the very issue of the referendum's positive outcome and the
activities of the Slovenian government in the referendum campaign that
NATO officials were most interested in at today's meeting, Zbogar went
on to say.
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