English

Montenegro soon to be a country without ambassadors in missions

On 18 January, Montenegro will officially be the country with no ambassadors in its missions around the world. A precedent is set by Prime Minister, Mr Zdravko Krivokapić, who urged all Montenegrin ambassadors to return to their homeland by this date, giving no further information regarding their possible return. Therefore, apart from seven ambassadors who are going to be recalled, others have to return as well, so that the Prime Minister may have talks with all of them and then decide who will return to the mission and who’ll stay home.

However, other problems may arise from this issue. In case a country, in this specific case – Montenegro – lower the diplomatic level to the level of a charge d’affaires in a specific country, and if that country has its own ambassador in Montenegro, “it will clearly put a strain on relations between the two countries”. Diplomacy sees it as a disrespect for that country.

The question is – why did the Government of Montenegro decide to do it? Are they consciously undermining the diplomatic network? Why?

According to the information of CdM, some of the ambassadors and chiefs in the diplomatic missions are extremely disappointed, angry and indignant at the overall situation, as they didn’t go abroad all alone, but with their families. Their children were about to start with school, and now they don’t know what to do, as no one knows whether and when they will be back at work.

The story about ambassadors started after Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Đorđe Radulović, told that he was going to recall seven ambassadors.

The Minister didn’t tell why he had decided to do so, simply noting that ambassadors were not working in the interest of the country.

However, the President of Montenegro, Mr Milo Đukanović, refused to sign a decree recalling seven ambassadors, demanding justification for the claims that they “were working against the interest of the state”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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