The Second Annual National Program (ANP) presented in Brussels

The Second Annual National Programme (ANP) created under the Membership Action Plan (MAP) was presented today at the meeting of Montenegro's representative with the representatives of the Alliance member states which took place in the NATO headquarters in Brussels today. NATO's Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy Dirk Bergman chaired the meeting.

The Montenegrin delegation was lead by State Secretary for Political Affairs of the Ministry of Foreing Affairs and Euroepan Integration Nebojsa Kaludjerovic. On behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the meeting was also attended by Deputy Minister for Security Policy Drasko Jovanovic.

Following the presentation of the Programme, the representatives of 20 NATO member states praised Montenegro's hitherto activities under the first cycle of MAP and the second ANP, which was qualified as a comprehensive and high quality document which clearly underlines the priorities. In this context, the attendants underlined the importance of further implementation of activities related to the rule of law and the strengthening of public support in Montenegro to its Euro Atlantic integration. They recognised Montenegro's role as a regional actor, as well as its contribution to global security in light of its participation in the ISAF mission.

They underlined the complementarity of European and Euro Atlantic integration process in terms of implementation of the political criteria and welcomed the positive opinion of the European Commission on Montenegro's progress.

State Secretary Kaludjerovic had a separate bilateral meeting with the Deputy Secretary General Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero who restated NATO's strong support to Montenegro's Euro Atlantic integrations and underlined the importance of its participation in the ISAF mission. Ambassador Bisogniero complimented Montenegro's constructive and active role in the region and stressed the importance of integration of the entire region to NATO in light of its long term stability. Ambassador Bisogniero said that, after successfully completing the first MAP cycle, Montenegro created positive grounds for implementation of the second cycle and the continuation of reform implementation, especially in areas such as rule of law and the strengthening of public support for joining NATO, where additional efforts are needed.

They underlined that the European and Euro Atlantic integration processes are compatible and lead to common goals, and that the European Commission recommendation for opening negotiations with Montenegro will have positive effects on further progress in the Euro Atlantic Integration process.