D. AVRAMOPOULOS: I am pleased to welcome here, at the Ministry of National Defence, today, my counterpart and friend, Mrs. Milica Pejanovic – Djurisic, Defence Minister of our friendly country of Montenegro.
Greece and Montenegro are two neighbouring countries with very strong and deep historic bonds, already since the period of the Balkan Wars when our two countries fought as allies side by side. Our relations are based on mutual confidence, respect, solidarity, friendship. And we both, the Montenegro’s Government and our government wish to widen, to strengthen and deepen our cooperation in all fields.
I would like to note that Greece constantly supports Montenegro’s Euro-Atlantic perspectives and I hope we soon see Montenegro in NATO, as well as in full membership to the European family. Our intention, our will is to cooperate also in the framework of the existent regional cooperation programmes to strengthen the regional stability and cooperation grid.
Minister,
Today’s visit in Athens is very important: it marks a new beginning, a new start and inaugurates a new cooperation chapter between our two countries; it also confirms our will and determination to cooperate more closely in deepening and strengthening our bilateral relations in the field of defence.
In this spirit, during our today’s talks, we sought, we examined all possible manners to further enhance this bilateral defence agreement and we exchanged views, based on the excellent military cooperation we have developed until now.
I remind you at this point that Greece possesses one of the best and most reliable defence systems in Europe and we are willing to provide with experience, expertise and infrastructure our neighbours, and especially to countries such as Montenegro, which, as I said from the beginning, is a friendly country, it is a country with which we have common history, but mostly common future perspectives. I remind you that the entrances of the Hellenic Military Academies are open for the personnel of the Montenegrin Armed Forces.
Greece, despite the financial crisis which it went through over the last years, remains the more stable, the more stabilising and strongest factor in a region where the line of instability starts from Ukraine and ends in Tunisia.
The developments of the Ukrainian crisis make it clear that at this difficult time diplomacy and not polarisation must prevail. At stake is the global stability, the imposition of the International Law and the smooth political and financial cooperation of European countries. The world, Europe cannot and should not go back to an era of suspicion and Cold War.
This is the message of peace and stability we all must send always and on every occasion and today I wish to believe that my Montenegrin counterpart and I share this opinion. It is a message that will be strengthened even further in late April, when a South-Eastern Europe Defence Ministerial extraordinary meeting will be held in Athens to lay the foundation of a stronger and deeper cooperation of all countries in our region in the field of defence, and mainly in the field of defence industry.
Dear Milica,
I would like to thank you personally, as well as your delegation for the very useful and constructive talks we had today.
I am convinced that reinforcing our bilateral contacts opens new prospects for the security and prosperity not only of the people of our two countries, but for the peoples of South-Eastern Europe, as well.
I would like to say once more that it is time to discharge Balkans from their heavy past through this cooperation; to make them an oasis of security and cooperation, a convincing example for the entire world in which peoples and nations which were in the past opposite to each other, cooperate today, responding to the spirit of our times. This is what we felt today during our talks and I wish to believe that it will generally prevail in relations among all peoples and nations of the region.
Minister,
Thank you again for your visit, for our excellent cooperation and I ask you to have the floor.
M. PEJANOVIC-DJURICIC (unofficial translation):
Thank you, Mr. Avramopoulos. I am very satisfied from my today’s visit to your country. Bearing in mind that Greece presides the European Union, this initiative of yours for a common high-level defence policy is important.
We believe that Greece as a friendly state in South-Eastern Europe, in the Balkans, understands very well what the historic tradition of our country is.
The cooperation between our two countries, as well as between our Armed Forces has been developed. The talks which were conducted today will definitely help to make this cooperation more constructive.
We expect from Greece, as a full NATO member to support us fully and we expect all your comments on the fulfilment of the criteria for the strategic priority of our accession to the EU.
Montenegro did its best to meet the political criteria. We aim to do more to ensure a safer future for our people. At a bilateral level, we work to make the help Greece provides us, such as training of our young officers more qualitative. And of course, we appreciate the increase that Greece announced. We will choose the best candidates to be trained and contribute to the Montenegrin Army.
Montenegro responded to its commitments through various operations. We took action and we keep taking action to contribute to the resolution of a series of open issues and to further stabilisation of the Balkans and of South-Eastern Europe. We agreed to intensify our cooperation through the regional cooperation.
As far as our bilateral cooperation is concerned, we paid a special attention to the cooperation between our Navies which is on the focus of our cooperation.
We expressed our will to participate in NATO formations based in Greece with the attendance of our officers.
We discussed about the situation in Ukraine, Syria and North Africa. We concluded that we are responsible to contribute to the diplomatic solution. Of course, cooperation with friendly neighbouring countries, such as Greece which will make it easier for us to create better conditions in our regions is important.
Once more, I thank Dimitris and all his associates for the cordial and warm welcome. I would like to invite you to visit Montenegro as soon as possible, to be able to see the intensity of reforms in my country.
Thank you very much.