Kozeta Cika contributed to this article
Image by Helmandsare
Montenegro is expected to be the next NATO member, bringing the total number of member countries to 29.
“Montenegro will become a NATO member in June”, NATO General Secretary, Jens Stoltenberg, stated a few days ago. He specified that all Alliance states have ratified the agreement with Podgorica.
Regarding such membership, the opinions among Montenegrin politicians are divided into positive and negative. Some of them appreciate it, others consider it as moving out of Russian influence.
Several days ago, the Montenegrin Foreign Minister, Srdjan Darmanovic, told Mina agency that Russia is not a democratic example for Montenegro and that the right orientation for the country is towards the European Union and NATO. During his press conference, he called the traditional friendship with Russia a myth related to the distant past. According to Darmanovic, the current division into pros and cons is a continuation of the previous division into pro-Montenegrin or pro-Serbian. “With NATO membership, Montenegro definitely seals its borders security and its independence, achieved in 2006”, stressed Darmanovic.
One day after his statement, the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Dusko Markovic, expressed himself in a Montenegrin radio station interview, where he stated that the political distance from Russia was not a government orientation and that it was the latter which tried to influence the parliamentary elections. Prime Minister Markovic stressed that Montenegro will not take any action that will aggravate these relations.
With respect to the Assembly boycott and the demand for a new election by the opposition, he sent a clear message that elections had been fair and if the opposition wanted to discuss new elections, then they had to return to the Assembly.
Recently, the political situation in Montenegro, the same as in Albania and Macedonia, has not been tranquil and many analysts do not consider it a coincidence.
