Minister of Foreign Affairs Đorđe Radulović said that "knowing the thoughts of certain members of the Government" and that if he had to forecast when the sanctions against Russia will be implemented in practice, "that it will be on the first day after the elections in Berane".
He said that if Montenegro wants to go to Europe, then it must respect the European rules and what its international partners expect from it.
"Montenegro declaratively aligns itself with the Common Foreign and Security Policy, which is the task of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is something that is currently leading us towards EU membership, however the very implementation of those measures in accordance with the Law on Restrictive Measures must be adopted by the Government I am disappointed that so far we have not had the political wisdom on the part of certain members of the Government to implement these restrictive measures in practice. I repeat, I understand that the elections in Berane are very important for certain members of the Government, but we will all agree that the European future of the country is European the future of all of us, much more important and much more essential than any local elections and a few percent of this or that emerging party," said Radulović for RTCG.
He pointed out that Montenegro will not face sanctions because of this, but that its European path "may be drastically slowed down".
"We are now at 100 percent compliance, and if we do not adopt this package of sanctions and implement them in our internal system, we will fall to about 50 percent. I ask all our citizens, do we need it? If we want to go to Europe, then we have to respect what are the European rules and what our international partners expect from us. If we want to take a different path, it requires a different political agenda and a different political platform that would have to be formed after the elections. Knowing the thoughts of certain members of the Government, if I had to If I were to forecast when the sanctions will be implemented in practice, I would say that it will be on the first day after the elections in Berane," said Radulović.
He also said that "much ado about nothing" was made in connection with the organization of voting in Montenegro for citizens of Serbia in anticipation of the upcoming presidential, parliamentary and local elections in that country.
"I fully understand that we are all a little nervous both in the region and on the European continent because of the war in Ukraine, as well as because of the elections that should take place in Montenegro and the region, but the readiness to raise tensions and to use tones that may not be appropriate is still worrying . Regarding the voting issue, Serbia addressed a note requesting three or four additional polling stations in addition to the embassies and consulates. For clarification, the rule and practice is that voting takes place in diplomatic and consular missions. If you are looking for something that is precedent and it is not usual, you need to give some explanation why it is so. Last night, after my statement which was extremely conciliatory and called for reason, rationality and reconciliation, today the diplomatic representative of the Embassy of Serbia was in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro and delivered additional explanations in which they state that they want it because of the large number of displaced persons who want to participate in the elections in Serbia, who are from Kosovo. As I said, these things are raising tensions and tones that we don't need at this moment, neither in Montenegro nor in the region".
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Radulović said that polling stations are open as they were in 2017.
"But Montenegro is not the only country that will approve polling stations outside of embassies and consulates. Austria and Switzerland also this year allowed Serbia to vote in schools and outside of their official diplomatic and consular missions, therefore, if Austria and Switzerland could allow it , of course with some even bigger countries like the USA, I don't see why Montenegro couldn't approve it and end this story, which really doesn't deserve this tone and these tensions," said Radulović.
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