At a special panel “Montenegro Knocking on NATO’s Door”, he said we expected invitation to join the Alliance by the end of the year, reminding that public support for the membership on the eve of the summit in Cardiff was about 46%.
Since there was no invitation then, a slight decline in support followed, but the Government intensified its campaign soon after that.
“Support for NATO has been increased by 5% during the last month. We have conducted two opinion polls – according the survey conducted by a Belgrade-based agency, public support rose to 41%, whereas results if the survey conducted by a Montenegrin agency showed it was already 42%. Likewise, percentage of those opposing NATO is declining,” Djukanovic said.
According to him, the surveys revealed a very important fact that 64% and 66% respondents, respectively, answered “yes” when asked “Do you think Montenegro will be a NATO member state?”, confirming that they had no problem with that fact and that they were ready to live in a NATO member state.
Asked how would they vote if a referendum on joining NATO was conducted tomorrow, 47% of the respondents participating in the first survey answered they would vote “yes” and 43% “no”, whereas the results of the second survey showed 44% respondents supported joining the Alliance and 40% opposed it.
Commenting on resistance to NATO membership in Montenegro, Mr Djukanovic said there was an issue of abusing emotions of a part of population opposing independence of Montenegro in 2006.
“They are supporters of, not only Montenegro’s, but the entire Balkans’, staying in an old historical matrix of ideological delusion. Not only that they were opponents of Montenegro’s independence and supporters of staying in the union with Serbia, but they are proponents of the Greater Serbia and the hegemonic projects in the region. That part of the public is still alive,” he said.
Djukanovic said that Montenegro wanted to be part of NATO because it wanted to continue implementation of the EU and NATO system of values, for the sake of both regional security and encouraging its progress towards the EU. “I think it is important for NATO to continue its prestige on the global stage. I think it is good for any organisation to have new members sharing the same values. In particular, I think it is important for NATO to have such a member state that will represent an encouragement for other countries in the region,” Djukanovic said.
He reminded that apart from NATO influence, there were other extremely anti-NATO oriented influences in the Balkans.
The GLOBSEC Forum is considered to be one of the most prestigious in Europe and this year it has brought together high profile participants who discussed the crisis in Ukraine, cyber security and other issues important for both European and global security.
On the sidelines of the summit, PM Djukanovic will have a number of bilateral meetings today.
