Croatian minister says very important for region for Montenegro to join NATO

Croatian Defence Minister Ante Kotromanovic has said that he expects Montenegro to be invited to join NATO by the end of the year, warning that anything else would be bad for the country as well as for the whole region.

"At this moment, I don't see any serious obstacle. You have done a lot in the reform of services and the defence ministry, you have been in the operations in Afghanistan with us for many years. Aside from politics, which can always be an obstacle, in my opinion there are no real reasons," he was quoted as saying in Saturday's issue of Podgorica's Pobjeda daily.

Commenting on recent incidents in Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, he said they would motivate NATO to think about enlargement and that it was very important for Montenegro to complete its Euro-Atlantic integration.

Kotromanovic called on Montenegro's citizens to support the government in its attempt to join NATO.

"You will sit at the table where the world's security policy and problems are discussed. Your armed forces will get a much bigger motivation and will, you will have an opportunity to work with many countries and officers, you will gain in terms of security and make reforms. Those are big benefits. We see what Croatia has gained, so people needn't be worried, regardless of whether Albanians, Croats, Macedonians, Serbs live here. I think that's good for them too," the Croatian minister said.

(Hina) ha

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