Chairperson of the Security and Defence Committee, Mr Obrad Mišo Stanišić, spoke today at the Regional Conference on NATO, within the first panel on the topic: "The role of Parliament in integration processes".

Mr Stanišić stressed that the Montenegrin Parliament made an exceptional contribution to the recognition of our country in the Balkans as a stability factor and as an example of good regional neighbourly relations.

"Montenegro has preserved its greatest wealth - multiethnic and multinational harmony. By preserving this capital, we have peacefully restored independence of Montenegro. Full membership in the NATO alliance that Montenegro has achieved only eleven years since the renewal of independence is a guarantee that we will be able to manage our own future, thus ensuring that many unpleasant episodes from our past are never to be repeated", Mr Stanišić said.

Chairperson of the Security and Defence Committee said that Montenegro's membership in NATO was just a step forward towards membership in the European Union, and emphasised in this respect the importance of the role of parliament in all integration processes.

Mr Stanišić also said that parliamentary cooperation between the Western Balkan countries has been one of the most important pillars of all integration processes in the region, and that the basic precondition for good cooperation has been settling open issues among neighbors, pointing to a positive example of Montenegro.

Montenegro will vigorously support all neighbors with the aim to obtain NATO and EU membership and share its valuable experience with them in order to facilitate their integration path, Mr Stanišić concluded.

Members of the Parliament, Mr Aleksandar Damjanović and Mr Dritan Abazović participated in the panel as well, who Chairperson of the Security and Defence Committee invited to be part of the working bodies of the Parliament in order to contribute to the strengthening of the parliamentary function and its control and oversight role.