Opponents of independent Montenegro fear the country's admission to NATO because it will put an end to their efforts to destabilise the state, Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic told Montenegrin Radio on Wednesday, adding that Montenegro's admission to NATO would represent the demise of the Great Serbian policy.
"Montenegro's admission to NATO poses a fatal threat to nationalist plans about the revival of a Great Serbian state, which is why its proponents are now trying to compromise Montenegro by making allegations about crime, in an attempt to slow down the process of its European and Euro-Atlantic integration," Djukanovic said.
Ahead of local elections in the country, Montenegrin opposition leaders have become more vocal in accusing the ruling regime of crime and corruption, describing Montenegro as "the Balkan crime hotbed". Local elections are expected to be held in late May in 14 out of 22 Montenegrin municipalities.
Djukanovic said the elections would reaffirm the leading role of the ruling coalition, that is, his Democratic Party of Socialists.
Montenegro expects to get an invitation to join NATO's Membership Action Plan at an upcoming NATO conference. The country received a positive response to that effect back in December.
After it declared independence in 2006, Montenegro joined NATO's Partnership for Peace programme and in late 2008 it submitted its candidacy for the Membership Action Plan. A few days ago, Montenegrin troops left the country for Afghanistan to serve in their first international peace mission abroad.
