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CROATIAN PRESIDENT ADDRESSES G11 MEETING IN JORDAN



AMMAN, May 19 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic addressed a Group of Eleven (G11) meeting at the King Hussein Convention Centre at the Dead Sea in Jordan on Saturday, which took place on the margins of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East.#L#
"Democracy must not be imposed, but should be a reflection and an expression of the free will of the people of every country, and every model of democracy must take into account the specific characteristics of a country where it is being implemented," Mesic said in his address, stressing that democracy should also exist in relations between countries.

"Advocating the absolute freedom of interference in the internal affairs of others under the guise of the fight for democracy is unacceptable," he said.

Mesic said that economic liberalisation was important and that developing countries were counting on outside assistance to ensure their development and achieve the goals of their reform. "Developing countries, by investing in those less developed, actually work for their own benefit," he said.

Mesic said that Croatia joined G11, a forum of lower-middle income countries, although it does not fully fit the criteria on which the group was formed.

"By contributing to the development, our countries also make an unavoidable contribution to the promotion of peace and security in the world (...) and at the same time they also make their contribution to the fight against global terrorism," the Croatian president said.

"The fact that we are meeting here today, alongside the World Economic Forum, shows that the world needs us," Mesic concluded.

The meeting was opened by King Abdullah II of Jordan, who said in his remarks that promoting peace and progress in the 21st century was the vital common interest of the G11 members. He identified the group's four priorities as reducing their debts, promoting trade, attracting investment, and obtaining support from G8, the group of the eight most developed countries in the world.

G11 was established last year on King Abdullah's initiative. It gathers lower-middle income countries (Croatia, Ecuador, Georgia, Honduras, Indonesia, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Paraguay, Sri Lanka, and Tunisia) for the purpose of coordinating their positions on such issues as trade negotiations, increasing direct assistance and easing the debt burden.

In their final declaration, the so-called White Paper, the G11 members stressed the need for further cooperation in trade, investment, communications, information technology, and tourism.

The next meeting is to take place on the margins of a meeting of the UN General Assembly in 2008, when a new country will be chosen as president of the group. Until then, the group will be led by Jordan.

http://websrv.hina.hr/nws-bin/genews.cgi?TOP=hot&NID=ehot/politika/H5196805.4yc