Joint press conference

Prime Minister Spajić, dear Mickey, it is a pleasure to welcome you here to NATO headquarters. For seven years now, Montenegro has been a valued NATO Ally. You enhance our military presence in Latvia and in Bulgaria. You support NATO's peace keeping efforts in Kosovo. You contribute to building more effective and inclusive security forces in Iraq, and I welcome your commitment to spend 2% on defence this year.

Today, of course, we discussed many issues. We are both worried about the situation in Ukraine, and we want to make sure that the support is there. And I want to say that I'm grateful for the support that Montenegro has provided so far, including delivery of military equipment and supporting through NATO's comprehensive assistance package. The situation on the battlefield in Ukraine remains difficult, and Russia is making gains, be it incremental gains, but still gains.

Over the past weeks, we have seen large scale attacks against Ukraine that killed and terrorized civilians and targeted critical infrastructure. This could be Ukraine's most difficult winter since this started, the full onslaught, since 2022.

So Ukraine needs our urgent support. All Allies must deliver on the commitments made at the Washington Summit, including, of course, the financial pledge and the NATO command in Wiesbaden.

Prime Minister, dear Mickey, I also welcome your commitment to reforms and Montenegro's path towards EU integration. The attacks on the water pipeline in northern Kosovo, on November 29, underline the fragility of the stability in the Western Balkans and I want here to thank the KFOR Commander for the swift deployment of troops to protect its critical infrastructure. We remain committed to ensuring that KFOR fulfils its UN mandate. It is now essential that the facts are established and that those responsible are held to account.

Today we also discussed Russia's malign and hostile activities on NATO territory. We have seen a surge of cyber-attacks, disinformation, political interference, increasing acts of sabotage and other hostile actions against NATO Allies.

Montenegro faces consistent hybrid threats from Russian and foreign actors. Russia wants to create fear and undermine our support for Ukraine. This will not work. In fact, we are strengthening our resilience. Montenegro has taken strong measures to counter hybrid threats by being the first recipient of a NATO counter hybrid support team. And I welcome that Montenegro joined the NATO rapid response group, which is a key forum for Allies to tackle this problem collectively, to tackle this problem together.

Prime Minister, dear Mickey, again, thank you for your leadership. Thank you for your commitment to our Alliance. Thank you for visiting today. It's my honour to give you the floor.

Question posed to the NATO Secretary General on behalf of Ivan Mijanović (RTCG): How do you assess the role of Montenegro in the context of the Western Balkans? And also how do you discuss Montenegro's support to Ukraine?

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte: Well, both issues are very important, obviously. And let me start with the Western Balkans. I really want to commend you for the fact that you are contributing to our missions, of course, in Iraq, Latvia and Bulgaria, but also in Kosovo.

And this is important. And Montenegro is a country in the Western Balkans. It is not the biggest country. But still, the stability and the fact that your voice of authority is heard in your region is very important.

The same is true for when it comes to Ukraine. Because you have delivered, for example, military equipment to Ukraine. We are generally very grateful for everything Montenegro is doing to support Ukraine so far.

Also through NATO's Comprehensive Assistance Package, And also because Montenegro is constantly pushing for the implementation of the decisions we reached at the Washington Summit and to make sure that we do everything to prepare Ukraine on its path to NATO membership. As you just stated also in your introductory remarks. So on all of this, we are very happy to work together and to see how we really can push the envelope. Thank you so much.