Official tells Russia Montenegro is "South," not "East"

Montenegro's national assembly should decide on the country's membership in NATO, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs and Deputy PM Igor Luksic has said.

Izvor: Tanjug

Friday, 08.01.2016.

15:29

Official tells Russia Montenegro is
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Official tells Russia Montenegro is "South," not "East"

"It seems confusing when, on the topic of Montenegro, a number of Russian officials express their opposition to NATO's enlargement to the East. Montenegro is not in the East, it is in the South, that is, in the Southeast. There are already a number of NATO states between Montenegro and Russia, so in itself, it is not contradictory," Luksic told Montenegro's Mina agency, the country's state broadcaster RTCG reported.

He believes that several open questions should be considered "in the overall context," and that "as time passes and the crisis in Ukraine settles down other topics, too, will relax."

"Montenegrin officials never in their statements contributed to raising tensions. Each state should be entitled to its decision and Montenegro is mature with institutions that have the strength to decide on any issue," said Luksic - an officially who has recently been nominated by the Montenegrin government as its candidate for the post of the next UN secretary-general.

He said one part of "the circumstances" is Montenegro's decision to join EU's sanctions against Russia.

"We were neither in favor of sanctions nor are we happy about it, but we are under obligation to understand, and to apply them because we proclaimed our strategic goal of EU membership and we should share the same values, and stand with our partners in difficult decisions," Luksic said.

The invitation from NATO to join, according to him, would not have been sent to Montenegro had it not opened accession negotiations with the European Union.

As for the decision on joining the military alliance, Luksic believes that it should be up to the country's parliament.

"The topic of NATO will be highly positioned in the election campaign, so no one can make the complaint that citizens will not be deciding on it by casting their vote for a political party," said Luksic.

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