At today’s meeting, in the presence of Chief of the General Staff and Armed Forces of Montenegro Mr Dragutin Dakić, the Security and Defence Committee has considered the 2018 Report on participation of members of the Army of Montenegro in international forces, peace-keeping missions, and other activities abroad.

On this occasion, the members learnt about preparation and deployment of members of the Army of Montenegro in international forces, peace-keeping missions, and other activities abroad: Resolute Support, Afghanistan; European Union Training Mission Mali (EUTM), Mali; United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), Western Sahara; Kosovo Force (KFOR), Kosovo; EU NAVFOR ATALANTA, Waters of the Indian-Ocean; and Enhanced Forward Presence (eFP), Latvia.

The Committee noted, inter alia, that the participation of members of the Army of Montenegro in international forces in the function of maintaining interoperability with allied forces, and building and strengthening the capacity of the members of the Army and units of the Army, and as such, was one of the priority tasks during 2018.

On the basis of a comprehensive debate, the Committee unanimously decided to accept the 2018 Report on participation of members of the Army of Montenegro in international forces, peace-keeping missions, and other activities abroad, with the following conclusions:

1. The Committee notes that the participation of members of the Army of Montenegro in international forces, peace-keeping missions, and other activities abroad significantly contributes to the international reputation of Montenegro and has a positive influence on the process of modernisation, interoperability and building operational capabilities of the Army of Montenegro;
2. The Committee, while respecting recommendations of the NATO partners and based on the positive experiences from the previous years, in the context of further improvement, especially praises the planned increase in the participation of members of the Army of Montenegro in international forces, peace-keeping missions, and other activities abroad in 2019.
3. It deems important the joint participation of members of the Army of Montenegro with members of the armed forces of the countries of the region in the missions Resolute Support and ATALANTA, which provides full contribution to regional stability, improvement of bilateral cooperation and further building of good neighbourly relations;
4. Based on the presented financial statement for 2018, it is noted that the planned financial framework ensured the full functioning of the forces and that there was no need for additional corrections, which confirmed the continuation of the trend of quality planning and rationalisation of the consumption of financial resources, in accordance with the available capacities.