In addition to them, the Slovak Ambassador to Montenegro, Frantisek Lipka, a representative of the Civic movement United Reform Action (URA), Bozena Jelusic, the Commander of the Montenegrin Armed Forces Contingent in the ISAF Mission in Afghanistan, Lieutenant Colonel, Igor Knezevic, the Dean of the Faculty of Business and Tourism, Rade Ratkovic, and the President of the Atlantic Alliance of Montenegro, Savo Kentera, also participated at the panel.
The Education Minister, Predrag Boskovic, said that neutrality in the era of globalisation was not an option which could contribute to stability or security or economic prosperity of Montenegro.
“That is why I am a firm advocate of Euro-Atlantic integration and why I belong to, I can safely say, the majority orientation in Montenegro to be part of these integrations,” he said. “Why would not be a part of a common security family and solve issues of internal security and safety and make a democratic step forward?”
Commenting on the protests that the Democratic front (DF) organises on Sunday, he said they are only directed against NATO.
“I do not expect anything from the protests, nor are they in my opinion serious. It is not a secret that even the citizens who do not have the information which we possess are aware why they organise the protests,” he said, adding that these are not protests against poverty, corruption or crime, but they are only anti-NATO protests.
“That is why there were rumours about them for a year and then they are organised now in order to create a public turmoil and send an ugly image of Montenegro and a message to the world that even in internal framework Montenegro cannot create an atmosphere that would be acceptable for receiving NATO invitation in December,” he concluded.
Speaking about importance of NATO membership for a small country, Slovak Ambassador Lipka said that NATO and the European Union had common policies and actually decided on many matters concerning not only member states, but also other countries, thus determining in some way their fate.
“If you are not a member of NATO, it means that others make decisions about you, you have no right to say that you do not like something, particularly if you are a small country… If you are a member, you always have the right to say – this is not in our interests, we do not agree,” Mr Lipka said, adding that there was no difference between small and big countries in the Alliance, because decisions were taken by consensus.
He gave example of Greece opposing to accession of Macedonia, which still has not joined NATO.
He also reminded that participation in NATO operations was voluntary.
Savo Kentera from the Atlantic Council of Montenegro said that NATO membership was a cheaper option than neutrality and explained that member states, or those aspiring to join the Alliance, allocated up to 2% of their GDP for the security system.
“Unfortunately, many states, such as Montenegro, do not allocate either these 2%. However, if we plan to build a high quality security system, then we would have to allocate 2% of GDP for it,” he said.
Mr Kentera explained that Montenegro would have to allocate 8-10% of the GDP if it decided to build its own security system as a neutral country. However, as he said not even 10% of the GDP could not guarantee security for any country including Montenegro, since there is no country that could defend itself on its own.
“It is not about a conventional war, but about modern forms of warfare, such as cyber warfare to which no country is immune. In such cases, the key to a successful defence is sharing information with partners, and it can be done only if we belong to NATO”, Mr Kentera concluded.
The Deputy President of the URA, Bozena Jelusic, said that it was very important for Montenegro to become a member of NATO due to a “paradoxical reason”. “Integration would represent a Montenegro’s step towards ‘venting’ political scene every four years rather than every quarter of a century”, she said.
Ms Jelusic believes that NATO will not remain a military, but a development organisation which will face and cope with the challenges of global disasters, global warming and sustainable development.
According to her, by joining NATO Montenegro would seriously deal with Chapters 23 and 24.
Citizens of Budva were the most interested in the issues of tourism development, increase in large investments and examples of good practices of member states after joining NATO.
The panel was held within the project “Speaking Tour” organised by the NATO Membership Council’s Communication Team in cooperation with the Embassy of Slovakia to Montenegro, the Visegrad Group and local authorities.
