“It is excellent that Montenegro showed negotiations can solve problems. It managed negotiations with Bosnia very well, when the country began irrational stories on Sutorina. This is where Montenegrin political elite very cleverly held their ground with a combination of open-door policy and a bit of a stiff position. They played this very well”, Gjenero said for Pobjeda daily.
According to him, Serbia is now frustrated that Montenegro signed the agreement on demarcation with Kosovo, which is irrational, he says, because Serbia needs to know Kosovo has to start making agreements with its neighbors.
He also said he agrees with the statement of the President of Montenegro, Filip Vujanovic, that if Montenegro and Croatia do not agree on Prevlaka, they should go to the International Court of Justice in Hague.
“President Vujanovic is absolutely right. I would like to make a deal. It is not an issue that is vital any of the countries, but we have seen that unresolved borders can cause problems, like with this failed tender for oil exploration in the Adriatic. When Croatia launched the tender, I said it was a big mistake to refuse the diplomatic offer of Montenegro to issue the tender together. By doing this, we would have sent the message that we are a fully consolidated region, two countries who trust each other. I think there is no reason for this to not be so. There are no new problems and tensions between Montenegro and Croatia. Cooperation is decent and good”, he stressed.
Asked whether he thought that the issue of demarcation in Western Balkans is part of a wider international story which formally started with the Berlin process, and whether this process helped resolve the issue of Montenegrin border with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, Gjenero said political will and statesmanship responsibility of Montenegrin leadership was the key in this case.
“They realized that the issue of unresolved borders can pose a problem in the pre-accession period and they decided to solve this problem. A little help from our friends never hurts, but I’m impressed in this case with Montenegrin state leadership. Of course the Austrian minister very much engaged himself in the matter and that there is a synergy between him and the European Commissioner, but that was not the key. The key was political will of Montenegro and for that, they deserve every praise”, Gjenero said among other things.
