BELGRADE, Nov 30 (NNN-Xinhua) — Serbia decided to withdraw an earlier decision to expel the Ambassador of Montenegro, announced Prime Minister Ana Brnabic.
After a meeting with President Aleksandar Vucic and Foreign Minister Nikola Selakovic, Brnabic said the government gave up Saturday night’s decision on expelling ambassador of Montenegro Tarzan Milosevic, ordered after Montenegro declared Serbian ambassador Vladimir Bozovic a persona non grata.
“Serbia will unilaterally withdraw the decision on the expulsion of the Montenegrin ambassador to Serbia tonight,” said Brnabic in a press release late on Sunday evening.
She stressed that although Serbia’s previous decision was well-founded in Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations as a response to Montenegro’s expulsion of the Serbian ambassador, “life and friendship with Montenegro are more important.”
Brnabic cited regional stability, cooperation and friendship with Montenegro, which is high on the list of priorities of the Government of Serbia and the President, as the first reason for that. Another reason, she added, is that 30 percent of Montenegro’s population is of Serbian origin.
“We are sending this as an act of goodwill, stretching out a hand of friendship and cooperation in the future,” she said.
Serbian Ambassador Bozovic was declared persona non grata Saturday by the Montenegrin Foreign Ministry due to alleged “long and continuous interference in the internal affairs of Montenegro, behavior and statements incompatible with the usual and acceptable standards of diplomatic office.”
According to a press release of the Montenegrin Foreign Ministry, most recently Bozovic said that the Podgorica Assembly held in 1918, which abolished previous sovereignty of Montenegro and annexed its territory to Serbia, was an “expression of free will of the people.”
Because of the remarks, Bozovic was declared persona non grata and asked to leave Montenegro.
The Serbian Foreign Ministry instantly responded with a similar decision, saying that Serbia reacted in a reciprocal manner and asked Montenegrin Ambassador Milosevic to leave the country.
Montenegro left the state union with Serbia after a referendum in 2006 and became an independent country, while in 2018 the Montenegrin parliament annulled the historical decision of the Podgorica Assembly made in 1918. — NNN-XINHUA
