After Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu said that Montenegro’s accession to NATO was needed to increase the alliance’s control of the Balkans and that our country had a zero military potentiality, the Defence Ministry headed by Predrag Boskovic told CdM that such statements from official Moscow only confirmed the fact that Russia was not ready to accept the reality that the new century brought new priorities.
The ministry stated that Montenegro had never been a military force, nor had it the pretension to become one. However it did not stop the country to have a great and glorious military history.
“In its Independence Declaration, Montenegro has defined its way to Europe and NATO, and therefore collective security as the only guarantor of lasting peace and stability in a very turbulent area,” the ministry said.
As the ministry pointed out, the Shoigu’s statement is another attempt to challenge the decision of the Government of Montenegro to independently decide on its foreign policy, as well as a possible incentive to recent efforts by opposition structures to obstruct the dynamics of the Euro-Atlantic processes, particularly at a time when the Draft Law on Ratification of the North Atlantic Treaty is on the Montenegrin Parliament’s agenda.
“When opting for European and Euro-Atlantic perspective, the Government of Montenegro was led only by the interests of its citizens, which required the implementation of intensive and comprehensive reform of the Montenegrin society. Now, when we are at the brink of achieving the goal, opponents of NATO membership, with strong support from Russia, openly conduct a campaign of misinforming Montenegro people and falsifying facts,” the ministry added.
It also said that Shoigu’s statement directly referred to latent attempts to destabilise the Western Balkan region and create security crisis in this part of Europe.
“Given the turbulent history of the region and the fact that Montenegro has been a factor of stability in the Balkans since the ’90s, Montenegro’s membership in NATO will additionally reinforce peace and security, as well as the democratic values of European and Euro-Atlantic communities. By promoting stability in its immediate surroundings, Montenegro will contribute to expanding the zone of stability in the Mediterranean, while the foreign influence of Russia in the immediate environment is very evident in the example of Ukraine,” the ministry stated.
According to them, the fact that Montenegro will soon become the 29th member of NATO, does not violate the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation in any way, but it might just threaten Russia’s pretensions to influence the region, as well as its capacity to threaten, influence and undermine NATO a policy of “open doors”.
“Shoigu’s statement that Montenegro has zero military potentiality is best denied by the fact that in 2013 Russia was interested in stationing Russian military ships on the coast of Montenegro, the country without zero military potentiality. Also, it is the fact that 28 members of the alliance recognised the quality of Montenegro’s active contribution to global peace and stability by its long-term participation in international peacekeeping missions,” the ministry stated.
It also pointed out that the official Montenegro repeatedly emphasised that its membership in NATO was not based on anti-Russian platform, but only on the regional and global security motives.
