The USA will continue to support European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Montenegro, said Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence Michael Carpenter.
Carpenter is paying a working visit to Montenegro. He has met the defence minister Predrag Boskovic.
Carpenter congratulated Boskovic on the appointment to a new position. He said he believes that Montenegro will continue to carry out planned reforms with the same intensity and actively contribute to the NATO agenda implementation.
Boskovic expressed his satisfaction with the support of the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee to the adoption of the Montenegro-NATO accession agreement and pointed out that the Senate was expected to support the cause in early 2017.
He added that parliaments of 16 NATO member states ratified the accession protocol so far and that he believes other countries will recognise the importance of the ratification as soon as possible.
Boskovic said that Montenegro already had significant experience in international missions of NATO, the EU and the UN and added that the Ministry of Defence would support the planned reform of the Armed Forces of Montenegro (VCG), in order to promote modernisation and improve interoperability with allied forces.
The officials discussed the current political and security situation in the region and Europe and agreed that the US and Montenegro achieved a good bilateral cooperation in the field of defence and that it should be further improved.
