National Coordinator for NATO: Efforts made towards promoting NATO accession produce significant results

Within the public dialogue on Montenegro’s accession to NATO, National Coordinator for NATO and Advisor to Prime Minister Nebojsa Kaluđerović visited Monday the municipalities of Kolašin and Mojkovac, where he presented the progress made by Montenegro towards Euro-Atlantic integration.

The meeting between Mr Kaluđerović and presidents of the local governments emphasised the importance of Montenegro’s Euro-Atlantic integration for the Western Balkan countries’ stability. It also discussed the role and contribution of local governments in this process, as well as the planned activities with the objective of informing citizens on the country’s foreign policy priorities.

During his visit to Kolašin and Mojkovac, the National Coordinator for NATO paid particular attention to wide-ranging benefits deriving from the NATO membership.

"All the NATO member states have raised their economic activities and the quality of life," he highlighted.

Commenting on the price Montenegro would have to pay for having its own defense system with three military branches, Mr  Kaluđerović said:

"An air squadron would cost EUR 1 billion annually. At sea, we would need two large patrol boats, as well as a dozen of large boats and 20 smaller ones. It would take six thousand troops. What do you think how much only four live firing a day for that many soldiers cost." He added: "If someone in 1988 had told us we were going to live in three separate states in the next 20 years, no one would have believed it . Now we live in the tiniest one, but our own country we have to preserve and develop."

National Coordinator Kaluđerović stressed that open dialogue with supporters and opponents, as well as with those who have no opinion on NATO integration, gave significant results in 2013. In that context, he reiterated that the number of citizens who support the NATO membership increased to 46%, compared to 35% in October 2013.

Over the past six months, in Mr Kaluđerović’s words, panel discussion and roundtables organised throughout Montenegro discussed the NATO accession process. The participants of these events were students, NGO representatives, business people, political parties, supporters and opponents of the idea, who in the spirit of open dialogue and democracy exchanged arguments regarding this issue.

"In these circumstances, prejudices towards the NATO accession were gradulally reducing, but there are still present for political, ethnic and religious reasons," National Coordinator for NATO Nebojša Kaluđerović concluded.