Joint press point

Prime Minister, it is a pleasure to welcome you to NATO Headquarters.

Montenegro is an important partner for the Alliance and an important aspirant to NATO membership. Your Euro-Atlantic integration is a vision that we all share. We are firm in our commitment to support you on your path towards NATO membership.

It is now three years since Montenegro joined the Membership Action Plan. You have been making significant efforts to address the outstanding reform challenges which you face. The efforts that you make today will be vital for your progress towards the Alliance tomorrow.

Montenegro’s reforms are ambitious. And they are on the right path. We encourage you to continue your efforts, especially in reinforcing the rule of law, and fighting corruption and organised crime. More reforms in the defence sector will also be crucial. There is still hard work to do. But Montenegro is moving in the right direction.

Montenegro has been a dedicated contributor to our ISAF operation in Afghanistan, You have given significant financial support to the Afghan National Security Forces. And we are grateful for all these contributions.

We are also grateful for your commitment to remain engaged in Afghanistan beyond 2014. We are now planning a mission to train, advise and assist the Afghan security forces once our current combat mission draws to a close, at the end of 2014. NATO will lead that mission. And Montenegro is fully associated with the planning process, along with a number of other partners who have pledged to make a significant contribution.

So let me thank you for your commitment to our operations, to our dialogue, and to your future in the Euro-Atlantic community.

MILO ĐUKANOVIĆ (Prime Minister of Montenegro): Mr. Secretary General, allow me, initially, to thank you for receiving us and for a very useful and informative meeting; important for our future cooperation.

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to emphasize that we see today's conversation and meeting as a continuity of excellent cooperation between NATO and Montenegro, and do thank you, at the same time, for your continuous support on our path, on our Euro-Atlantic path. Owing to such a support Montenegro plays a positive example in the region; that is, a state which in very short time, in six and a half years, got over very difficult tasks and got some difficult paths along.

And we are a role model in that regard in this cooperation with NATO we contributed so importantly. We, first of all, kept … preserved internal stability, we contributed to the region as a stabilizing partner in something that is condition for the stabilization and democracy in the Balkans. And as Mr. Secretary General said, we with full responsibility recognized our commitment for global stability. We took part in ISAF mission to that end, and we contributed to the helping in the crisis all around.

We recognize that many exercises and undertakings are still unfinished, and that the small or bigger states we have to actually broker stability as the condition for prosperity.

The new government that I'm Prime Minister of, in the last hundred days actually efficiently demonstrated that it remains committed to strategic priorities that were defined, and the NATO membership is one of our top priorities, I dare say even top priority, and we've worked very hard on strengthening our structures and to provide coordination of all activities towards reaching the end of becoming a member.

When we will become a member depends on our performance and our delivery on our reforms. It also depends on our partners, of course, and I believe NATO will remain consistent in its open-door policy in recognizing individual achievements. And we hope to be able to deliver on expectations as well, until we are deemed to be ready.

I think the priorities that the Secretary General emphasized, our priorities that we have defined, that is rule of law that is compatible with our commitments in EU membership partner, reforms of the security sector, greater investment in the defence sector and improving public support. These four pillars are the pillars that we really diligently work on and I hope that in the next year’s time will make results that will put us in the position to say to our partners that we are ready.

I will conclude with by saying that in Montenegro we believe that continuation of Euro-Atlantic integration and the agenda in the region is very important because there is no other place, other than the Western Balkans where the security conditions for democracy is so closely tied to integration and I believe that for our region integration is really very important to strengthen stability. After Croatia becomes a full member of the EU, then Montenegro is ready to play its role that we've already starting playing, and that is an advocate of European and Euro-Atlantic values in the region, with a view to actually provide for prosperity of the Western Balkans.

Thank you for your attention and I'm looking forward to our future cooperation. I hope that Montenegro in the near future will become a full member of NATO.

OANA LUNGESCU (NATO Spokesperson): We have time for only one question. Montenegro State TV.

Q: I am Alexandra (inaudible) from TV Montenegro. A question for Mr. Rasmussen. How do you see the open-door policy in the perspective of Western Balkans in Montenegro in context of open-door policy?

ANDERS FOGH RASMUSSEN (NATO Secretary General): We have clearly stated that NATO's door remains open to European democracies that fulfil the necessary criteria to become members of NATO. We think the open-door policy has contributed in a valuable way to creating a Europe whole, free and at peace, security and stability on our continent. And our vision is to see all countries in the Western Balkans integrated in our Euro-Atlantic structures, the European Union and NATO. But as I said, certain conditions must be fulfilled to join our Alliance. Montenegro has made substantial progress in a very short time. We commend you for that, but there is still some work to do. It's premature to outline any timelines for future membership, but the brief answer is that the faster the necessary reforms are implemented the sooner you can become a member of our Alliance.

OANA LUNGESCU: Thank you very much. I'm afraid that's all we have time for. The meeting of the North Atlantic Council will start right now. Thank you.