Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the inclusion of Montenegro into the NATO military alliance was a decision that served a geopolitical project. Mrs. Lavrov said the inclusion of Montenegro into the alliance did not bolster NATO’s security in any way during a press conference alongside his Slovak counterpart Tuesday. “This is a geopolitical project at its finest, it does not strengthen the security of NATO, this is obvious. It probably leads to additional expenses for NATO countries because Montenegro will need to be developed in military and technical terms,” Lavrov said.

“Some countries, such as Serbia and FYROM (Macedonia), refused to do that and NATO’s leaders developed a grudge against them,” Lavrov stated. “In Montenegro these demands fell on fertile soil. The Montenegrin leadership was promised that its problems with the law in the context of accession to the alliance would be forgotten.

On May 19, 2016, NATO member states signed the accession protocol. According to NATO’s website, the accession process is expected to finish by June 2017.