President Milanović after his meeting with President of Montenegro: It’s important that you continue your path towards the European Union, we’ll help you as much as we can
“We are neighbouring states and it is of exceptional importance to develop and nurture relations, to resist all eventual whims of daily politics that generally have an effect to harm relations. At the moment I don’t see anything that could harm relations between Croatia and Montenegro, but that there will be topics, that they will appear spontaneously or that someone will imagine them – there will be”, the President of the Republic of Croatia Zoran Milanović stated today following his meeting with the President of Montenegro Jakov Milatović, who is paying a two-day Official visit to the Republic of Croatia.
President Milanović feels that the negotiation process for Montenegro’s accession to the European Union should be accelerated. “How can you be a NATO member yet unable to overcome all the unsuspected obstacles and become a member of the European Union? This is the reality we live in and in that sense you have my support”, President Milanović stated, adding that “the European Union should explain to itself how it is possible that some states – that joined NATO five years ago or more – are still not even close to joining the EU?”.
“Those are delaying tactics that can’t be explained by anything else but irresponsibility and running away from solutions. I wish to repeat once again what I repeat often and what I consider has a very strong and factual, even a moral basis: states that joined NATO – namely Montenegro, Albania and North Macedonia – for which negotiations on accession to the EU are extending and dragging out, are in fact being consciously and irresponsibly sacrificed”, President Milanović noted.
“I’m visiting friends as a friend. I think this is the most important message that I wish to convey to the President of Croatia and the citizens of Croatia alike. Montenegro and Croatia enjoy friendly relations”, the President of Montenegro Jakov Milatović, whose first Official visit since being elected in May and sworn in as President of Montenegro is to the Republic of Croatia, and the Republic of Croatia is the first European Union Member State that President Milatović is visiting bilaterally.
“Our relations are friendly and allied within the framework of NATO. This alliance provides a good platform for further impetus in our mutual cooperation. I appreciate the Republic of Croatia’s support for Montenegro in terms of our path towards the European Union”, Montenegrin President Milatović said, adding that the imminent membership of Montenegro in the European Union would be a very good and positive signal to other states of the region. Saying that Montenegro remains dedicated to good-neighbourly relations with the Republic of Croatia, he congratulated Croatia “on all the good that was done in the past period, the decade of membership in the European Union and the recent entry into Schengen and the euro area because those are major achievements that can be good examples to us as neighbours”.
In his statement to the media, the Montenegrin President expressed hope that after the new Montenegrin government is formed, he would like to see “the first historical joint session of the governments of Montenegro and the Republic of Croatia” where they would discuss issues that would be a good basis for advancing our relations”. For the Croatian minority in Montenegro and the Montenegrin minority in Croatia, he says that they make a further contribution to relations between the two states. “I am glad that the Croatian community has its representative in the new Assembly of Montenegro and I think that’s a good course. I think that the party Mr. Vuksanović represents will be a member of the new Montenegrin government”, the President of Montenegro stated.
Asked about the training ship “Jadran”, which Montenegro considers its property, President Milanović noted that it is “unbelievable what demand there is for ships from the era of Josip Broz”. “Perhaps a solution should be found for joint financing. I hope there is a solution that takes costs into account because its maintenance is costly for individual states”, he added. Journalists were interested in knowing whether he spoke to the representative of the Croatian Civil Initiative in the Montenegrin Assembly Adrijan Vuksanović on the formation of the new Montenegrin government, President Milanović replied that he hasn’t talked to him because “not that it’s not my concern, but I don’t participate in that”.
Asked about the formation of the new Montenegrin government, President Milanović stated: “I feel that what’s important for Montenegro is to get a stable government, to continue its path towards the European Union. There is no great wisdom there because that is your commitment and your direction. We will help you as much as we can on this path. I see that based on your public appearances and speeches that NATO and the EU are your primary goals although that wasn’t quite clear some time ago”, President Milanović stated.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Dario Andrišek, Ana Marija Katić, Marko Beljan