Minister Vucinic visiting the USA

Minister of Defence Boro Vucinic, who is visiting the United States on the occasion of the first US-Balkans Business Summit in Baltimore (www.usbalkanssummit.com), met yesterday with David and Quentin Whiteree, owners of "Common Defense Quarterly" - magazine for International Military Cooperation and the company "IDEEA".

The meeting was also attended by the Director of the Montenegrin company "POLIEX" from Berane, and it considered the possibility of promotion of this Montenegrin company through the magazine, as well as the participation of our representatives at international conferences.

Minister Vucinic emphasized Montenegrin willingness to support the idea of "Center for Excellence" that would in its first phase focus on the military component, training of helicopter pilots and mountain units, with the possibility of using the existing training centers.

Minister Vucinic met yesterday with the leading team of the Atlantic Council. They gave an affirmation of the previous cooperation and expressed their readiness to adopt the agreement which will present specific projects, especially in education of young people in the area of safety, by implementation of one-month programs that gave excellent results in cooperation with Turkey and Georgia.

Minister Vucinic informed the hosts that the MoD is very dedicated to the development of good cooperation with the NGO sector, what was confirmed at the recent consultative meeting with representatives of the nongovernmental organizations in Montenegro. 

It was concluded that the inclusion of the Atlantic Council from Washington may contribute to improving the dialogue with non-governmental organizations with the Ministry of Defence and also improving the dialogue on civil-military relations through organizing conferences and seminars.

Minister Vucinic also had a meeting today with the newly appointed US attaché of Defence for Montenegro, Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Murphy, who is currently in training in Washington. It is planned that Lt Murphy takes the duty of attache in Montenegro in mid-July.