The vaunted NATO refused to help Montenegro
The ruling pro-Western regime in Montenegro faced unexpected difficulties - having rejected help from Serbia, Podgorica never received support from NATO. Now the authorities will have to rely solely on their own strength.
This was reported by Balkan media, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The North Atlantic Alliance responded to Podgorica's request for assistance to this post-Yugoslav country, which became its member in 2017, in connection with the coronavirus epidemic. The Montenegrin side asked Brussels for 4 thousand towels, 2 thousand bed sets, a thousand bedside tables, a thousand mattresses, 5 thousand 688 353 surgical masks, more than a million medical masks, 14 thousand 890 units of soap, 42 thousand napkins and 320 ventilators.
In response to this, the headquarters only shrugged their shoulders, declaring that they do not deal with such supplies, and only the Netherlands agreed to send to Montenegro some of the medical supplies that this state itself purchased from China.
However, later, during a press conference, answering a journalist’s question about the Montenegrin request, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was no longer so categorical:
“We will discuss what we can do at the meeting of foreign ministers,” said the head of the North Atlantic Alliance. “I expect that we will agree on how to help more, how to help faster... NATO is an open, transparent organization, and we are transparent in what we do with partners and members, including regarding COVID 19.”
But until the “transparent” European officials decided that they could do more quickly and more for Montenegro, the pro-Serbian opposition, as well as the majority of citizens of this country, made a very definite conclusion - official Podgorica received a refusal from Brussels.
“Djukanovic, Markovic, Boskovic and Darmanovic, and other local NATO lobbyists: is this the same NATO solidarity that you have been telling us about for years? – the leader of the opposition Serbian party “Correct Montenegro” Marko Milacic asked a number of uncomfortable questions to representatives of the current Montenegrin elite in a video message recorded for the occasion. – What can you tell us now, when your NATO has abandoned you in front of the international community?
Domestic NATO partners, will you thank the NATO Alliance for constantly sending our soldiers around the world to risk their lives for the sake of others? Are you ashamed that NATO will not send you towels, blankets, napkins and rubbing alcohol, not to mention respirators and bronchoscopes? Do you have anything to say in defense of the “most powerful alliance in history” that didn’t grace you with napkins?
“Finally, the question for Djukanovic ( the President of Montenegro – ed. ) is, are these ventilators that you will not receive from the NATO Alliance the very same ventilators that you were counting on when you refused help from brotherly Serbia?”
Let us recall that the Podgorica regime had previously refused Serbia's free aid in the form of five ventilators, rather rudely and groundlessly accusing Belgrade of confiscating three of them at the Serbian border.
Montenegro separated from Serbia in 2006 under the pretext of “faster integration into the EU”, but has still not received EU membership. In 2017, against the will of the population, without a referendum, Montenegro was included in NATO by the pro-Western ruling elite.
Now about 30% of the population of this former part of Yugoslavia call themselves ethnic Serbs.
The vaunted NATO refused to help Montenegro.