Under Secretary Shannon Accepts Montenegro’s Instrument of Accession to NATO From Montenegro’s Foreign Minister Darmanović
The newest member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance is Montenegro and the tiny nation is wasting no time getting involved in showing its support for collective defense.
Montenegro also plans to join the NATO battle group deployed in Latvia, General James Everard, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, told journalists in Riga.
The general said that he met with Latvian Defense Minister Raimonds Bergmanis (Greens/Farmers) and Chief of Defense Leonids Kalnins and discussed the issue related with the NATO enhance forward presence battle group that “includes eight nations, and soon nine when Montenegro joins”, reported The Baltic Times.
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As reported, the Canada-led multinational NATO battle group is 1,300 strong. The battle group, stationed at Adazi military base, is made up of Canadian, Albanian, Czech, Italian, Polish, Slovakian, Slovenian and Spanish soldiers.
The goal of NATO Enhanced Forward Presence is to protect and reassure NATO’s eastern member states of their security and to deter any possible aggression against NATO eastern member countries. The multinational NATO battle group arrived in Latvia in June 2017.
The issue of NATO accession by the Western Balkan nations has been an excruciatingly slow process. Many in the West wonder why America should sign on to defend these tiny countries, while many students of history speak of the instability of the region and the need for imposed peace.
Russia sees Balkan nations joining the alliance as encroachment by the West into its ‘near abroad’.
