Dual citizenship agreement “unlikely” to be reached

Serbian Deputy PM and Interior Minister Ivica Dacic stated Saturday that Serbia and Montenegro were unlikely to reach an agreement on dual citizenship. He explained that this was primarily due to restrictiveness of Montenegro's law, and underlined that Belgrade and Podgorica had not discussed this issue for over a year. Dual citizenship agreement “unlikely” to be reached “The relations between Serbia and Montenegro should be kept in the rational domain. We should not cling on the past, but rather have a relation which would be completely unburdened,” Dacic said for Tanjug news agency. Serbia respects the decision by the Montenegrin citizens to establish an independent state, however, as the Serbian interior minister puts it, it is certain that there are no other two nations in the whole world which are as close as Serbs and Montenegrins. “It is in Serbia's interest to develop its relations with Montenegro, meaning that the rights of the Montenegrin national minority in Serbia will be honored as well as those of Serbs in Montenegro,” he pointed out. “The talks on dual citizenship have practically been suspended for a year, given that the approaches and legal frameworks of the two countries are largely different,” Dacic pointed out. He recalled that Serbia's law was liberal and allows Serbs to have dual citizenship, whereas Montenegro had a restrictive law on citizenship which envisaged that Montenegrin citizens had no right to any other citizenship. “I know that this issue is important for a large number of our citizens, since there is a considerable number of Serbian citizens with Montenegrin origin. According to our data, there are about 200,000 of such cases. However, there are also Montenegrin citizens who would like to have Serbian citizenship. We will continue to implement our law,” Dacic said. Ivica Dacic (Tanjug)

Dual citizenship agreement “unlikely” to be reached

“The relations between Serbia and Montenegro should be kept in the rational domain. We should not cling on the past, but rather have a relation which would be completely unburdened,” Dačić said for Tanjug news agency.

Serbia respects the decision by the Montenegrin citizens to establish an independent state, however, as the Serbian interior minister puts it, it is certain that there are no other two nations in the whole world which are as close as Serbs and Montenegrins.

“It is in Serbia's interest to develop its relations with Montenegro, meaning that the rights of the Montenegrin national minority in Serbia will be honored as well as those of Serbs in Montenegro,” he pointed out.

“The talks on dual citizenship have practically been suspended for a year, given that the approaches and legal frameworks of the two countries are largely different,” Dačić pointed out.

He recalled that Serbia's law was liberal and allows Serbs to have dual citizenship, whereas Montenegro had a restrictive law on citizenship which envisaged that Montenegrin citizens had no right to any other citizenship.

“I know that this issue is important for a large number of our citizens, since there is a considerable number of Serbian citizens with Montenegrin origin. According to our data, there are about 200,000 of such cases. However, there are also Montenegrin citizens who would like to have Serbian citizenship. We will continue to implement our law,” Dačić said.