First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Vesna Pusić told the press from the NATO ministerial meeting that Montenegro had received an invitation to join NATO. Congratulating Montenegro’s citizens, Pusić said that Montenegro “is a unique example of a disproportion between a country’s size and its contribution to European and global security,” adding that Montenegro was in a geostrategic position of extreme importance for the security of Southeast Europe and the Adriatic-Ionian region.
Membership in associations such as NATO in this part of Europe is not only a matter of security but a matter of building state institutions, a process in which Croatia and Montenegro cooperate closely on a number of levels, said Pusić. She underlined that Montenegro’s future NATO membership was not directed against anyone, but that it was for the sake of stabilising Southeast Europe, expressing belief that Montenegro’s NATO accession would not have a negative impact NATO’s relations with Russia, despite Russia’s scepticism.
“The EU and NATO member states now have a duty to define a new platform for cooperation with Russia on security issues in the Middle East and stopping the war in Syria,” Pusić said, adding that a successful cooperation could contribute to improving relations between Russia and NATO. In that context, one of the main topics of the meeting included the efficiency of NATO’s cooperation with Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran in fighting against terrorist organizations, notably ISIL. This necessitates harmonization with the US and Russia’s new engagement in the Middle East, but one should be weary of the danger of conflict when numerous factors are joined in a war against terrorists, Pusić concluded.