Slovenian and Montenegrin foreign ministers Dimitrij Rupel and Milan Rocen signed on Thursday an agreement on technical assistance in EU issues and on development cooperation, confirming excellent bilateral relations. Montenegro is one of Slovenia's favourite partners, Rupel said after the signing at Brdo pri Kranju.
According to the Slovenian foreign minister, Slovenia has a joint history and, he believes, a joint future with Montenegro. "We want this future to come as soon as possible and this is why we are signing the agreement today".
Slovenia furthermore unreservedly supports Montenegro in its bid to join the EU and NATO. "We are convinced that Montenegro will continue its policy of approaching the EU. We can therefore look forward to more meetings...and ensure that citizens of both countries profit as much as possible from our cooperation," Rupel added.
Rocen meanwhile said that countries in the region were proud that one of the states of the former Yugoslavia made it so far to actually preside over the EU. "Slovenia can be in many ways an example to all of us in the Balkans, especially Montenegro".
He thanked Rupel for Slovenia setting up a joint visa application centre in the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica, which allows citizens of Montenegro to apply for visas to Slovenia, Austria, Hungary and Poland, while other countries have also expressed their willingness to be represented by the centre.
The ministers also talked about Western Balkans and Kosovo, with Rupel saying that Slovenia wanted all of the region to be covered by the multitude of EU's regional cooperation schemes.
Rocen said Montenegro wanted a solution for Kosovo that would open the doors wide to the European prospects of the region and would follow European policies regarding Kosovo, he said.
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