18 February 2019 - "Small countries like Montenegro and North Macedonia must act smartly since we do not have many resources and we must use the best we have. I think that is the whole logic of the Alliance. We cannot all be specialized in all issues but we can have advantages in some of them and offer them to our allies," said Minister of Defense of North Macedonia, Radmila Šekerinska, during the NATO summit held in Brussels last week.
In the conversation with Montenegrin journalists, Šekerinska said that during the entire negotiation process with NATO, official Skopje had the great support of Montenegro.
“When we got the new Government in 2017, several days later Montenegro entered the Alliance and I was invited to deliver a speech at the ceremony in Skopje organized by the Montenegrin Embassy. I said then, and I still think so, that Montenegro serves us as an inspiration and that even in the hardest of circumstances, one should think about the strategic objective. You have been through a very difficult political period, and we have even been through the violence and very deep political crisis. Despite everything, we managed to unite our state,” said Šekerinska.
She points out that her department has had very intense cooperation with the Montenegrin Ministry of Defense. They used our experience as an example. She states that the Macedonian transition will not be easy.
“Resources are required, people are necessary, we must act fast. We have been working a lot with my Montenegrin counterpart and did so many projects of bilateral cooperation and transformation of armed forces,” said Šekerinska.
Asked if North Macedonia is faced with strong Russian pressure, just like Montenegro, she said that there had been several statements made by official Moscow related to Macedonian NATO accession being an act against Russia.
“We want to be on good terms with Russia too, but our strategic objective has been defined since 1993. EU and NATO membership is our goal. We don't agree with those saying that North Macedonian NATO membership means NATO expansion towards the east. We decide about our own future but we want good relations with everyone,” concluded Šekerinska.
Source: Cafe del Montenegro
