ZAGREB, Croatia - Croatian military leaders credit the National Guard's State Partnership Program with helping the country win an invitation to full NATO membership.
National Guard leaders visiting the country April 10 found senior military officials still celebrating results of the April 4 NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, where Croatia was invited to full NATO membership. Croatia is partnered with the Minnesota National Guard in the National Guard's State Partnership Program (SPP).
"It's huge progress," said LTG H Steven Blum, the chief of the National Guard Bureau. "There's a great sense of pride and satisfaction, well-deserved, of the Croatian people. It's recognition of the huge transformation that has occurred in modernizing their force and moving toward a NATO model. A good measure of that success is attributable to the successful partnership program between Minnesota and the Croatians."
About the size of West Virginia, Croatia declared its independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991, which was followed by a half-decade of violence with the occupying Serbs.
"The SPP has been a catalyst to accelerate the improvement and modernization and transformation of the Croatian armed forces towards a NATO model," Blum said. "It's played an essential role."
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an alliance of 26 countries from North America and Europe. The treaty was signed April 4, 1949.
Among those visiting Croatia was the adjutant general of Minnesota, Maj. Gen. Larry Shellito, and Maj. Gen. Frank Grass, U.S. European Command director of mobilization and reserve component affairs.
The National Guard leaders visited Croatian Army Headquarters in Karlovac, where they were briefed on the army's structure, transformation, capability building and international engagements. Croatian military leaders said they hoped to see the partnership deepen. They discussed future exchanges in Croatia and Minnesota.
Croatia is scheduled to host a June multilateral exercise dubbed Adriatic Aurora '08 that includes National Guard troops. In addition to Croatia and its SPP partner, Albania and its SPP partner of New Jersey and Macedonia and its partner, Vermont, are expected to participate.
Croatian troops continue to contribute to international operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
"The Minnesota National Guard looked like proud parents watching the progression and development of this force," Blum said. "There's no question a very palpable trust, confidence and enduring relationship built between Minnesota and the Croatian military, which is absolutely invaluable to a good partnership program. They have made up many, many years in a very short period of time because of the strength of the partnership."
Under the SPP, 59 foreign countries are matched with U.S. states. Some states have more than one partner.
"The State Partnership Program is absolutely invaluable to the combatant commanders in moving the armed forces of the countries in their area of responsibility toward a more modern or interoperable model," Blum said. "It has similar effect wherever we've gone. All of the original state partners have moved from state partnership "¦ into NATO aspirants, and they've all become NATO members."
SPP activities include exchanges by high-level military and civilian leaders. Military-to-military contacts bring state National Guard members together with foreign troops. Military-to-civilian activities focus on homeland defense, homeland security and military support to civilian authorities, including disaster preparedness, emergency response and consequence management.
The partnerships can address a wide variety of shared security issues, including border security and migration, combat medical training, computer and financial crime, defeating improvised explosive devices, disaster response, humanitarian assistance, illegal drugs, military support to civilian authorities, peacekeeping operations, port security and weapons proliferation.
Civilian security exchanges often grow from the SPP, with increased contacts between U.S. and foreign businesses, educational institutions, farmers, doctors, lawyers and scientists.
Partnerships are created through discussions among countries, ministers of defense, the U.S. ambassador, regional combatant commanders, adjutants general, governors and the chief of the National Guard Bureau, which administers the SPP.
The SPP started in the Baltic region of Europe in 1993 after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, focused on matching U.S. states with former Soviet satellite nations. The SPP later expanded to South and Central America. Central Asia, the Middle East, the Pacific and Africa came next. The U.S. in October established Africa Command (AFRICOM).
No SPP relationship has ended and none has failed since the program's inception 15 years ago.
"It's an enduring and mutually beneficial relationship," Blum said. "The focus of it can change, depending on the maturation of the relationship."
Note: The CIA World Factbook contributed to this report.