Part of the Montenegrin opposition has already begun talking about stepping out of NATO, although the country has not formally become a member of the alliance yet. Since NATO was established, there has been only one such case, when France decided to partially withdraw from NATO. Namely, in 1966 then president Charles de Gaulle decided to step out from the military structure of NATO, but in 2009 France fully reintegrated to the alliance.
Pobjeda newspaper calls in mind that recently, Demos’s MP Goran Danilovic has said that it is “legitimate to expect that some new parliamentary majority will make a decision for Montenegro to step out of NATO”.
On 28 April the Parliament of Montenegro is to discuss the Draft Law on Ratification of the North Atlantic Treaty, which, among other things, stipulates that a country that joins NATO may leave the alliance only after 20 years.
Military analysts Aleksandar Radic, said that such opposition claims were no more than a “myth”, just like the claim that the US Senate might not ratify Montenegro’s NATO accession protocol were.
Therefore, as he said, NATO insisted that Montenegrin government provided substantial support for joining NATO, in order to avoid second thoughts.
“In real political life, we cannot know what can be changed over the years when it comes to the role and function of NATO and how the alliance will be recognised by the public opinion,” Radic told Pobjeda.
He points out the example of France, which used to withdraw from the military institutions for 43 years, but it remained a part of the alliance. Radic says that France has long been active in the political part of NATO and it has always been recognised as an ally.
“Now it is part of the NATO military forces again. This is just a confirmation of the reality of the policy of Western countries. They have recognised a need for the alliance. There may be various models at different times, but NATO and the EU have a common value system. France could withdraw from some activities, but at no point it denied being an ally,” said Radic.
Nevertheless, it is the fact that within NATO operation in 1999 France took part in the bombing of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, although it did not participate in a high level command. That leads to conclusion that practically there is neither complete nor partial withdrawal from NATO before the expiration of 20 years of membership.
