Montenegro NATO Membership: A Message To Putin?
“Ukraine and Georgia will become members of NATO. This was clearly stated in the 2008 Bucharest NATO summit”.
What You Need To Know:
✓ By adding Montenegro to NATO, the goal is to show others countries like Ukraine and Georgia that the door is still open;
✓ “NATO is also an ideology, it is about liberal democracy, transparent institutions, fight against corruption, and Montenegro made a really good job on these fields”;
✓ “Ukraine and Georgia will become members of NATO. This was clearly stated in the 2008 Bucharest NATO summit”.
In terms of military value, Montenegro does not have too much to offer to NATO, Bruno Lété, senior program officer at German Marshall fund of the United States explains, adding that “we have to see beyond the military sphere. By adding Montenegro to NATO, the goal is to show others countries like Ukraine and Georgia that the door is still open.”
“NATO is also an ideology, it is about liberal democracy, transparent institutions, fight against corruption, and Montenegro made a really good job on these fields,” Lété points out.
Russia responded to this news in a very aggressive way, Lété is convinced: “because Russian opposition to a country’s joining NATO, is the usual Russian foreign policy. When a country joins this alliance, Russia has less influence and less leverage in that country.”
According to Lété, Ukraine and Georgia should not be disappointed by this preference of a safe, European country that does not have any territorial issues, “both Ukraine and Georgia will become members of NATO. This was clearly stated in the 2008 Bucharest NATO summit, even if this will happen only in the long term.”
For Bruno Lété, talking about NATO also means talking about joining the EU. “NATO will also facilitate a EU membership because when your territory is secure and safe, it is much easier to implement all the social and economic reforms that are proposed by a European union.”
Hromadske's Ian Bateson spoke to Bruno Lété, German Marshall Fund of the United States during the Sunday Show live broadcast in Kyiv on December 13 2015.
Montenegro NATO Membership: A Message To Putin? by Hromadske International on Mixcloud
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