Your Excellences,

Esteemed members of the Alfa Centre,

It starts with alpha and ends with omega. We hope that the first part of this journey though Greece endurance, and partly through ethics, initiated by the Alpha Centre, will get the last letter in 2015. Certainly, the last letter in this part of Montenegro’s journey to the NATO, on its path to full-fledged membership, is absolutely the end but also the beginning.

Somehow, we all know that for all great ideas, the path is more important from the goal.  And that pilgrimage in building a society of permanent values, that mission of the Alfa Centre which has been lasting, must have its goal, which will be - I hope - completely achievable in 2015.

course, those who remember only a year, and in Montenegro there are fewer such people than those who remember more, will recall that I had such a wish also last year. Not a wish, but I was certain. It is not that I recognise mistakes, because I would change political culture of Montenegro. It was in the best faith that even then we were capable enough to enter the NATO, not as a completely ready member, but as a member which would become even better by the entrance. I am certain thgat this time we are taking an exam which we must not miss out. Montenegro must prove that a new chance - an examination year which must pass – is not a year which has not had a chance to be worthy.

The goals are and are not difficult, but the most important fact is that they depend on us. There should be no difficult goals for Montenegro in our integration, especially those depending on us. And all of them depend on us.

Should we have a rule of law – it depends on us, should we have safe and reliable safety networks – we depend on it and not that it only depends on us. Should we have a public which understands that – it depends on us. Montenegrin wisdom and duration have been open to world, and on this day in 1909 the French fleet sailed into the port of Bar - the first Allied fleet that sailed under the French tricolour, and if we could be a part of the system of European security back then, a small but equal, then today’s Montenegro can also enter NATO port in 2015.

The century and more has past, the century full of everything for Montenegro. Both the disappearance and resurrection. But the problems have always been similar: we disappeared when we were bad and we resurrected when we were good. Regardless of the injustice in Versailles in 1918, we were not company good enough. We were not a society that strengthened democracy after the Constitution of 1905, we were not a society where institutions were strengthened – but rather the power of the King was strengthened. We were not a society where courts were fair and chiefs equal with people, but we were a society strongly differentiated. Thus, the defeat in Versailles is not a defeat on the battlefield, but a defeat of the society’s inability to provide a society with more security by being more valuable.   

The year of 2015 has similar challenges – to deal with ourselves. That is an invitation to all of us that victory belongs to Montenegro, NATO is only a form and a shape of the award for that achievement. That is the award of the permanent safety, permanent alliance, and for such a small country, particularly important multiplication effect to all our developmental projects. There has been no person to devise a development without security and the rule of law. Montenegro needs to know that there is no other way.

I am positive that the values promoted by the Alfa Centre, the journey from alpha to omega will be finished in 2015. If it depended on you, it would have been finished in 2008. And when it comes to things which depend on us, you will see the results. But, anyhow, I expect and believe that we will help jointly to Montenegro and society – to be small but reliable partner to the successful, democratic and most developed countries. We have to be like that.

With a wish to celebrate jointly 2015 as a member invited to the NATO Alliance and with a wish the Alfa Centre to continue its work, because the mission has not been finished and values are never certain – they are always jeopardised and they should be defended.

I congratulate you holidays with gratitude, and once more – may 2015 be a happy victorious year.

Thank you.

Ranko Krivokapić