Montenegro currently has ambassadors at only eleven addresses in the world, while chargé d'affaires represent it at twice as many - twenty-two.
This is shown by the data submitted to Vijesti from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MVP).
According to these data, Montenegro has ambassadors in only seven countries - Belgium, Greece, Italy, North Macedonia, Russia, Turkey and France, and in four missions - to the EU, UN and other international organizations (Geneva), OSCE and the Council of Europe.
Until four days ago, the country had an ambassador in the Permanent Mission to NATO, but she was recalled due to the expiration of her mandate.
When it comes to chargé d'affaires, they represent Montenegro in some of the most important global political and financial centers, such as Washington, Beijing, London, Berlin and Abu Dhabi, and they are also found in almost the entire environment - Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo and Slovenia.
At the plenipotentiary level, the country is also represented in Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Spain, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Argentina, the Sovereign Order of the Knights of Malta, and the Permanent Mission to the UN (New York).
In addition to ambassadors and chargé d'affaires, Montenegro also has three consuls general abroad - in Frankfurt, Sremski Karlovci and Istanbul, and one consul general - in New York.
"Since the restoration of independence, Montenegro has had diplomatic representatives at the head of all diplomatic and consular missions (DKP) at all times who coordinate the work of the DKP, with a difference in the level of diplomatic representation", the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced to Vijesta.
The reason for the current state of the diplomatic network, i.e. that the country has twice as many ambassadors than ambassadors, and that the highest-ranking diplomat has not been in the most important addresses for more than two years, is in a failed cohabitation. That is, the impossibility of the new authorities and the former head of state and the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) Milo Đukanović to agree on the appointment of ambassadors.
Neighboring Croatia faces a similar problem, which due to the conflict between President Zoran Milanović and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković has no ambassadors in Paris, London, the Vatican...
Miodrag Lekić, until recently the president of the Parliamentary Committee for International Relations, told the News that the current situation in the diplomatic organization says a lot of negative things about Montenegro. He states that the Montenegrin foreign policy and diplomatic network can be said to be "a rather neglected area".
Lekić, otherwise a respected diplomat, assesses that the DPS regime is partly to blame for such a situation, and that the responsibility, if not greater, lies with the new government, which, in his words, "was incompetent, and in fact not up to the task, according to expectations of citizens, change the situation for the better".
He says that the impossibility of choosing an ambassador was primarily due to the blockade, that is, "the victory of Đukanović in the system of cohabitation".
"It is interesting that his partners from the new government, despite far greater constitutional powers, quickly gave up on the matter of appointing ambassadors. And despite the warnings of the Committee for International Relations that the procedures be renewed and persevere in the state's obligation... After all, the facts say that Đukanović, as defeated in the elections on August 30, 2020, overthrew one government, formed another, unconstitutionally dissolved the parliament, so maybe it's not surprising that he stopped the appointment of the ambassador", Lekić pointed out, adding that, by all accounts, it was not particularly difficult for the former president "taking into account the state's immature partners".
The first post DPS The government, led by Zdravko Krivokapić, requested at the end of 2020, that is, at the beginning of 2021, the recall of the ambassadors in Germany, Italy, China, the UAE, Poland, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Holy See due to, as they claimed, political agitation and suspicions that some of them served "private or interests of various groups or individuals". Đukanović initially refused to sign the revocations, stating that the proposals for this were not accompanied by explanations, but he did so at the end of February 2021, after the Government corrected the proposals. A little earlier, due to the expiration of his mandate, the previous ambassador in Washington was also recalled.
After that, the government proposed to fill the vacant positions, but Đukanović refused to nominate the majority of candidates, saying, among other things, that Montenegro cannot be represented by those who "worked against it" and who voted for the survival of the state union in the 2006 referendum with Serbia.
The recent president did not change his opinion despite the dissatisfaction of part of the public, and the diplomatic network became increasingly loose because the ambassadors in London, Slovenia, Croatia, Argentina, the UN and the Council of Europe were subsequently recalled.
There was no progress on the appointment of top diplomats even after the current government was elected, headed by Dritan Abazović, and which was voted no-confidence in the parliament after less than four months of work. With that, de facto, she lost the legitimacy to deal with the issue of ambassadors. However, she did not consider the loss of trust to be an obstacle for her to appoint chargé d'affaires. By the way, since the end of October last year, the government has not even had a minister of foreign affairs, but Abazović coordinates the MFA.
The Cabinet of the President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović, told the News that it is a "serious challenge" that currently the largest part of the diplomatic network is at the level of the chargé d'affaires, and that the head of state, as well as the Parliament and the Government, should face this.
According to the Constitution, the president appoints and dismisses ambassadors at the proposal of the Government and with the opinion of the parliamentary committee responsible for international relations.
"As you know, the new convocation of the parliament was recently constituted, and consultations are underway for the election of the mandate for the composition of the Government. We believe that for the Government, which has been repeatedly told that it should be pro-European and pro-reform, one of the priorities is to resolve the issue of ambassadorial positions, especially at important addresses such as the USA, Great Britain, Germany, but also other partner countries", they announced. from Milatović's cabinet, adding that it is a matter of a "serious and responsible approach", because increasing the efficiency of the diplomatic network "is of the greatest importance for the quality representation of Montenegro in the world".
With the defeat of Đukanović in the presidential elections held in April, Montenegro came out of two and a half years of cohabitation, which should be formalized by the election of a new government, which should be led by Milatović's colleague from the Europe Now Movement (PES), Milojko Spajić. Therefore, it is realistic to expect that the ambassador appointment process will be "unfrozen" then.
That it is necessary to have diplomats of the highest rank in Washington, London, Berlin... also believes Lekić, who says that it is important for several reasons.
"And despite the fact that the mentioned countries, through their ambassadors, are very present and active here on the political and diplomatic level. Interstate communication, obviously and often of a one-way character, takes place dominantly through that channel. Thus, our embassies are left with the performance of consular affairs. It is clear that all this, especially the lack of formal reciprocity, makes our country inferior", the interlocutor notes.
The issue of inferiority was also raised in the context of the quality of diplomatic personnel, considering that during the time of the DPS government, "heroes" of numerous domestic and international affairs, party soldiers, persons arrested while they were representatives of Montenegro were awarded ambassadorial positions... However, Đukanović did not see anything problematic when he proposed and appointed such, while two years ago he contested some respectable candidates for ambassadors.
Milatović's cabinet states that Montenegrin ambassadors are the "face" of the country in the world, and that they must be "the best that the country has to offer." They say that the president will be guided exclusively by this when appointing them.
"As you know, on the eve of the parliamentary elections, President Milatović held consultations with political entities on topics that require a broader consensus. We believe that in the coming period these talks will continue and that this issue will be one of the topics of the talks", they add.
Lekić: If the government is accused of crime, it is irrelevant whether we have ambassadors or plenipotentiaries
Lekić says that the data on the number of (un)appointed ambassadors is worrying, but that the "qualitative aspect, that is, the content and methods of foreign policy action" is even more worrying.
"You see, if, for example, in the 43rd Government, which, as you know, had a lot of godfathers, including international ones, the Prime Minister on the one hand and the Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs on the other, daily and publicly accused who was the bigger criminal and traitor to the country - then, believe me, in those conditions, it doesn't even matter for the country's reputation whether the Montenegrin embassies are headed by ambassadors or chargé d'affaires", he points out.
Lekić states that the non-appointment of the ambassador is in itself, from the point of view of the functioning of the state and its interests, a serious problem that must be resolved.
"True, in this gloomy story there are also competent diplomatic actions, such as, for example, in our mission to the EU, where we are adequately represented at the ambassadorial level. Another topic is how much the same mission can, in fact cannot, compensate for the causes of the blockade of the European road, which are obviously internal to the country", concludes the interlocutor.
The Head of State is obliged to request a new statement from the Government if the committee rejects the candidate
The parties that won the 2020 elections amended the Law on the President at the end of last year, also in the part concerning the appointment of ambassadors, in order to get out of the blockage of that process caused by cohabitation.
With the amendments, they prescribed the provision that the head of state is obliged to appoint a candidate for ambassador proposed by the Government, if the competent committee supported that candidate in its opinion. However, that provision, like a number of others, was annulled by the Constitutional Court at the end of June.
It remains in the law that the president appoints and dismisses ambassadors and heads of other diplomatic missions on the proposal of the Government and with the opinion of the committee, and that the head of state is obliged to request a restatement of the Government on the proposed candidate if the committee refused to support his appointment.
What is the situation in the region?
When it comes to the diplomatic networks of the countries of the region, Serbia, according to data from the website of their Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has 58 ambassadors and 21 chargé d'affaires.
However, that ministry recalled 23 ambassadors whose mandates had expired in mid-July. Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic announced that the vacant positions will be filled by the end of the year.
BiH, according to information from the local media, has 45 ambassadors.
According to the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Croatia has 77 ambassadors.
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