The flag of Montenegro was raised at NATO Headquarters on Wednesday in a special ceremony to mark the country’s accession to NATO.
Flag raising ceremonies were also held simultaneously at Allied Command Operations in Mons and Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk, Virginia. Montenegro became the 29th member of the Alliance on Monday when it deposited its instrument of accession to the North Atlantic Treaty.
Standing alongside President Filip Vujanović of Montenegro, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said:
“We value Montenegro, and recognise the unique contribution you make to the Alliance.”
The Secretary General also commended Montenegro’s commitment to Euro-Atlantic integration and congratulated the Montenegrin government and people for their achievements in the 11 years since the country regained independence.
Allied foreign ministers signed Montenegro’s Accession Protocol in May 2016, after which all 28 national parliaments voted to ratify its membership. Montenegro’s accession represents NATO’s first enlargement since April 2009, when Albania and Croatia joined the Alliance.
Welcome to the club Montenegro Montenegro brings some unique and highly capable armed forces to NATO. GDP to defence expenditure is 1.56%= 50 million Euros a year They have a total armed forces of 1600 personnel (all no doubt highly capable and trained for high intensity warfare and expeditionary warfare in support of their allies) They also have a reserve forces strength of 400 personnel (good to know they have strength and depth) Total population is circa 630,000 personnel I can easily understand why they wanted to join NATO. Guess we will be needing to offer them reassurance and UK… Read more »
typo, sorry! total population is 630,000 people not personnel- they obviously have children and the elderly in that number.
Because they inherited the Serbian navy (who are now landlocked) they are rather well equipped for such a tiny & relatively poor county.
Joe you gave to be joking me surely ?
a few patrol boats and fast attack craft do not make a capable navy. A small force of lynx or apache attack helicopters would make short work of the Montenegro navy.
As i stated, I do not see any advantage to NATO of admitting Montenegro to the alliance.