A senior US official visited Montenegro, on Monday, to support the small Balkan nation in joining the European Union.
HDN Newsroom
During a press conference in the capital Podgorica, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Gabriel Escobar said Montenegro should be next in line to join the 27-nation bloc.
“There is absolutely no doubt in our mind… (the) strategic goal of this country is to become (a) full EU member,” said Escobar after talks with Prime Minister Milojko Spajic.
Six nations from the Western Balkan region – Albania, Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro and North Macedonia – are at different stages of the EU accession process following a period of wars and crises in the 1990s.
Escobar said EU enlargement has become a reality following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 which made US and EU officials more keen on trying to lure the six countries away from the Kremlin’s influence.
“It is very important right now,” he said, “we need to make sure Montenegro remains the next candidate and the next member of (the) European Union.”
In 2017, Montenegro defied Russia by joining NATO and has since sought EU membership. Spajic, who took office last year, has pledged to revive the EU bid after years of political deadlock.
Few days earlier, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Gabriel Escobar met with officials in Kosovo in the latest American effort to restart the talks between the two countries (Serbia and Kosovo) after Kosovo made a controversial decision to ban ethnic Serbs in its territory from using the Serbian currency, the dinar.
