Sergei Lavrov
The accession of Montenegro to NATO will strengthen the security nor the Alliance, nor of this country, and will only lead to more expenses of the members of the North Atlantic bloc. This was stated by Minister of foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov following talks with his Slovak counterpart Miroslav Lajcak, reports “Interfax”.
Thus, according to Lavrov, Russia has nothing against European economic integration of the Balkan countries, including Montenegro and Macedonia.
At the same time, Lavrov expressed the view that the United States and leading EU countries are “obsessed with the next task of mastering the Balkans.”
Montenegro officially became the 29th member of NATO on 5 June. During the ceremony, which was held in Washington, US Deputy Secretary of state Thomas Shannon was given the Protocol of accession to the North Atlantic Alliance.
Earlier in the day the Russian foreign Ministry said that Moscow reserves the right to make decisions for the protection of national security in connection with accession of Montenegro to NATO.