Opening a meeting of foreign ministers of the South-East European Co-operation Process (SEECP) in the Montenegrin coastal resort of Budva on Wednesday, Milan Rocen, the foreign minister of Montenegro which currently chairs the SEECP, spoke about the importance of the regional cooperation and the continuation of the region's integration into Europe.
Speaking about the one-year-long Montenegrin chairmanship over the SEECP, Rocen said that this period had been marked by the development of SEECP member-states and headway in their aspirations to join Euro-Atlantic institutions.
The minister said that the example of Croatia that had wrapped up the European Union accession negotiations encouraged and assured others that those goals were attainable.
"This additionally encourages us to be more enthusiastic in efforts to build a society of stable democracy, dialogue, tolerance, the rule of law and market economy, while respecting human and minority rights," the Montenegrin minister said.
"Regional cooperation must become a way of life and inseparable part of the European policy of the southeast of Europe," he added.
The South-East European Co-operation Process (SEECP) is a regional initiative launched in 1996, which now gathers 12 countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia and Turkey.
Montenegro has chaired the association for 12 months and the next chair is Serbia.
Croatia's Foreign Minister Gordan Jandrokovic attended this gathering which will end on Thursday with the adoption of a declaration at a summit meeting of heads of state or government of SEECP countries.
