Montenegro and Italy boost defence cooperation

Rome, Italy (15 September 2011) – During his first official visit to Italy yesterday, Montenegro’s Defence Minister Boro Vučinić signed a major agreement with his Italian counterpart Ignazio La Russa, which provides a legal framework for closer defence cooperation between the two countries.

Italy and Montenegro seek to promote cooperation in education and training, joint participation in peacekeeping missions and operations and military industry. The two ministers underlined in particular the importance of promoting regional defence cooperation and pledged closer partnership to this end.

Minister Vučinić recalled that four Montenegrin troops participated in the EU’s NAVFOR ATALANTA operation, under the Italian command, adding that more soldiers are expecting deployment in December.

The two sides highlighted the excellent cooperation between the two navies, emphasising the importance of continued training programmes in line with NATO standards, such as Montenegro’s recent accession to the ADRION Initiative (a navy cooperation programme under the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative) and other form of cooperation, including computer simulations and naval exercises. They remarked that, this year, for the first time, an ADRION LIVEX exercise took place in Montenegro.