If Montenegro and Serbia are the closest in the region, as is claimed in both Podgorica and Belgrade, then relations should be "reset" and start from the beginning.
However, with the visit of the President of Montenegro Jakov Milatović a fairy tale is not beginning in the relations between Serbia and Montenegro, but a real space is being opened for strengthening relations in mutual interest between the two countries, exactly what the citizens of both countries expect and want.
So a political analyst from Belgrade Cvijetin Milivojevic and the president of the parliamentary committee for international relations and a member of parliament Miodrag Lekić answer the question whether after the visit of Milatović Serbia to start resolving open issues between the two countries.
The Montenegrin president paid a two-day visit to Belgrade on Sunday and Monday, where he talked with his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vučić and the President of the Assembly Vladimir Orlić. The outcome is the announcement of a quick exchange of ambassadors, agreement on stronger infrastructural cooperation, but also Vučić's avoidance of an answer as to why his government has been avoiding Podgorica's extradition request for several years. Svetozar Marović.
Milatović's visit to Serbia was accompanied mostly optimistically, even though there was no Montenegrin flag on the Belgrade towers, as a year ago when the arrival was glorified Dritan Abazović to the capital of Serbia. After that, political relations did not progress, Marović was not extradited to serve his sentence in Montenegro, Belgrade and Podgorica do not have ambassadors.
Neither Lekić nor Milivojević want to say whether it will be different this time, but they say there is reason to believe in it.
"Although I don't believe that one meeting can turn relations between countries around, and considering that good interstate relations should be built patiently and thoughtfully, I see the first visit of the President of Montenegro to Serbia as a good initial step. It is noticeable that during the meeting in Belgrade, a pragmatic tone prevailed, and that the topics of the economy were dominant. Now we need to see the implementation of what was agreed at those meetings," said Miodrag Lekić.
Cvijetin Milivojević answers the same question with a counter question - "what do you think is in Mr. Vučić's mind today?" He reminds that Vučić makes all the decisions in that country, even though its Constitution states that the Government conducts domestic and foreign policy.
"If we were to talk about what awaits the relations between Serbia and Montenegro in the future, it is absolutely necessary to reset those relations in the part that concerns pure politics, and there are several open questions. Some of them were also discussed during the meeting between Vučić and Milatović," he states.
Milivojević reminds that Vučić announced that Serbia will appoint an ambassador in 12 days and expects that person to be the opposite of the current diplomat Vladimir Božović, who was expelled from Montenegro due to inappropriate statements and was banned from entering. In the meantime, his mandate expired, because Belgrade insisted that he be the ambassador of his country in Podgorica from there.
"The ambassador of Serbia in Montenegro is a person for whom this was not appropriate because he was from Montenegro. It is ridiculous that the ambassador of Serbia should be a man who is from Montenegro, as well as vice versa. Things need to be brought back to the beginning. If the two countries, as they say in Podgorica and Belgrade, are among the closest friends, then we should respect that and send a credible, relevant person of influence, someone who has sensibility for both countries and both peoples. I hope that it will be a step that will be respected", says Milivojević.
Lekić agrees that the issue of exchanging ambassadors is now more seriously on the agenda. "With the departure of Đukanović, who in fact always managed the DPS governments, and during his cohabitation in recent years did everything to cheat other institutions of the new government, including in the area of appointing ambassadors, therefore, his departure opens the possibility of appointing ambassadors in Belgrade and Podgorica. Here, of course, the Serbian side has a certain responsibility... And it will undoubtedly be a significant moment in the revitalization of neglected relations between Serbia and Montenegro... Further foreign policy actions of Montenegro will also depend on the maturity and seriousness of the Montenegrin state policy, as well as the functioning of cohabitation at a high political level," he said.
Symbolically speaking, it is good that there was no polemical discussion about the Battle of Mojkovac, which I personally respect very much, but about the balance of payments, measures that will encourage economic exchange, especially about traffic, therefore, about topics that are of increasing interest to the citizens of the two countries, says Miodrag Lekić
Podgorica to be more subtle about Kosovo, Belgrade protects Marović
"On the Serbian side, there remains the problem of not handing over the convicted Montenegrin politician, who is apparently being protected by the authorities in Belgrade for unknown reasons. With such a relationship, Belgrade makes it difficult to fully normalize relations and unnecessarily creates a mystery about the political reasons for it," says Lekić, commenting on Vučić's announcement that Serbia will "take into consideration everything Milatović says and provide well-founded answers" regarding Marović.
"Truth, part of the responsibility for that case lies with the authorities in Montenegro, in the sense of how much they are interested in it and how they justify such a request when they occasionally activate it," he states.
The fact that Vučić turned this problem to the problem of Kosovo, which Montenegro extends in international institutions, Lekić adds:
"There remains the issue of Kosovo, where Podgorica should treat that issue with much more subtlety. At the same time, without disrupting their wider interests and regional cooperation, nor their relations with Serbia. All this is not easy, but it is also possible, with a little more ability and seriousness. It is obvious that everyone has their own dissatisfactions, and that list should be reduced and, ideally, reduced to zero," he says.
Milivojević assesses that "everyone who wants healthy and improved relations between Montenegro and Serbia must answer both questions" - Marović and Kosovo.
"Although it is not the fault of the current president, nor the current technical Government, Montenegro recognizes Serbia on a narrower territory. This is a very serious problem which in the diplomatic sense of the word implies reciprocity, which would mean that if a Malaysia or Old Herzegovina appears in Montenegro with the desire to secede, should Serbia recognize those attempts", asks Milivojević.
He says that he understands that Montenegro, as he says, recognized Kosovo under pressure from Washington, but that he does not have to extend it to UNESCO or the Council of Europe.
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