Montenegro and Bosnia ‘Close to Border Deal’

The Bosnian prime minister said there was only one disputed piece of territory to be demarcated before the ex-Yugoslav states sign a crucial border agreement. Vjekoslav Bevanda and Milo Djukanovic, the prime ministers of Bosnia and Montenegro , said a deal was close after they met on Tuesday in Podgorica.

“There is only one undefined border point, which I expect to be solved soon in order for the two countries to sign the border agreement,” Bevanda said.

Neither official specified where the disputed land was located on the 240-kilometre-long border between the two countries.

Podgorica usually receives praise from the EU for fostering good neighbourly relations, but the most recent European Commission progress report on the country, published in October last year, noted that Montenegro’s border demarcation process with Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo and Serbia had yet to be completed.

In June 2012, Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic stated that the border deal with Bosnia was being finalised and would be the first agreement of its kind between the two former Yugoslav republics.

The large part of Tuesday’s meeting was devoted to the economy, the improvement of infrastructure connecting the two countries and to the possibilities of advancing their European integration.

Alluding to Bosnia’s stalled advance towards the EU, Djukanovic said that Montenegro offered a good example for overcoming such delays.

“As we can see, Montenegro today is not lagging behind and it managed to compensate for a delay of 10, 15 years,” he said.
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