04 October 2018 - Minister of Defense of Montenegro Predrag Bošković participated in a meeting of the North Atlantic Council (NAC) at the level of NATO defence ministers in Brussels. The session was devoted to NATO's defence and deterrence policy.
Defence ministers confirmed that efforts to preserve peace, stability and security throughout the Euro-Atlantic area will remain a priority in the coming period. The Alliance is the foundation of a strong collective defence and will continue to effectively fulfill the key tasks defined by the Strategic Concept while adapting itself to the changes that a new security context will bring. The Allies have committed themselves to make a strong contribution in order to transform NATO's command structure according to the planned dynamics. The Alliance will remain firmly committed to protecting and defending the territory of all allies in accordance with Article 5 of the Washington Treaty. As a mean of preventing conflicts, the key concept of defence and deterrence is crucial, which will be based on an appropriate combination of nuclear and conventional capacities.
The meeting emphasised that the EU remains an important NATO partner, and that significant progress has been achieved in the past period in the field of cooperation between the two organisations. It also welcomed NATO's and EU's commitment to advancing military mobility, as well as the desire to deepen cooperation in line with the conclusions of the European Council of June 2018.
The Minister welcomed the efforts to implement the new NATO command structure, given that NATO proves the ability to continuously adjust the structure and functioning of it in accordance with contemporary security challenges. In this context, he stressed that Montenegro will continue to consider positions within the command structure that Montenegrin members could fill in the coming period.
The Minister stressed the importance of the implementation of the measures envisaged by the new Joint Declaration of NATO and the European Union, taking into account the importance of cooperation between the two organisations, with a focus on their complementarity and the need to develop defence capacities that will not overlap each other.
