Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas will be in Montenegro on Thursday and Friday, 27 and 28 January. His visit is being carried out on the occasion of the Informal Ministerial of the South East European Cooperation Process (SEECP), but will also be bilateral in nature, as he will meet with much of the political leadership of Montenegro to promote bilateral relations and support Montenegro’s EU accession course.
On Thursday, Mr. Droutsas will meet, in the following order, with Montenegrin Minister for Foreign Affairs and European Integration Milan Rocen, Prime Minister Igor Luksic, Speaker of the House Ranko Krivokapic, and President of the Republic Filip Vujanovic. At 15:00 the same day, he will deliver a speech at Montenegro’s Public Administration Directorate to a select audience of high-level public administrators and diplomats who are handling Montenegro’s adaptation to the Community acquis. His speech is entitled “Bringing Europe to the heart of the Balkans: The Montenegro story”. Mr. Droutsas will make statements to the press at 12:30 on Thursday, following his meeting with his Montenegrin counterpart.
On Friday, Mr. Droutsas will participate in the Informal SEECP Ministerial in the city of Budva. In his address, he will have the opportunity to stress that the promotion of regional cooperation is a basic component of Greece’s policy on the Western Balkans, and that cooperation is a vehicle for the incorporation of the countries of Southeast Europe into European institutions. Greece played a central role in the 1996 founding of the SEECP, which is the only local cooperation platform composed exclusively of Southeast European countries.
Mr. Droutsas will have meetings with his counterparts on the margins of the Ministerial.
January 26, 2011