In the White House, President Krivokapić met with Mr Charles Kupchan, Special Assistant to the American President and Senior Director for Europe at the National Security Council (advisory body of the White House).

The interlocutors focused the conversation on the issue of Montenegrin membership to the North Atlantic Alliance. During their conversation, they welcomed participation of our country in the peace missions, and Montenegro was estimated as a reliable partner in advocacy for peace.

In his conversation with Mr Kupchan, President Krivokapić pointed out that the Montenegrin Parliament, as the most transparent institution in the region, was using dialogue to open the issues important for our society and was continuously building its capacities aimed at strengthening constitutional competencies. “Out of the overall adopted laws, this year the Parliament of Montenegro adopted 40% of the legal texts relating to the rule of law, combating corruption, and strengthening the independence of the key institutions”, Mr Krivokapić pointed out.

At the meeting, they welcomed the constitutional amendments in part regarding the prosecutorial organisation, as well as the election of the special public prosecutor. They estimated that the work of these bodies was especially important in creating the overall image of progress of our country in part regarding the implementation of the adopted laws and their rule.

In Washington, President of the Parliament of Montenegro Mr Ranko Krivokapić met with Mr John Heffern, Deputy Assistant to the State Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Ms Victoria Nuland. During the meeting of Mr Krivokapić and Mr Heffern in the State Department, they said that the USA appreciated the efforts and steps that our country was making on its path towards the NATO membership. They said at the meeting that Montenegro would have a strong support for the processes which contributed to security and stability of the region, advocacy for peace, as well as strengthening of democracy through stronger rule of law.

 “The rule of law is an expression of maturity of a country and its society. We have a long-standing tradition of statehood, and we are now facing a task to make our home value-based on the principles of the rule of law, democracy, independent and strong institutions. Our foreign policy priority is NATO membership and contribution to the collective security and peace, and in that field we are strongly dedicated to responding to requirements from our Euro-Atlantic agenda. We are very grateful to the USA on its support and understanding it provides us in reaching our state’s goal – sealing our independence”, said Mr Krivokapić.

The interlocutors estimated that the trend of Montenegro’s movement towards the Euro-Atlantic corridor was positive and that the activities in that sense needed to be intensified in the important months that were to come.

In Washington, President of the Parliament of Montenegro Mr Ranko Krivokapić also had a meeting with Mr Mark Lagon, President of Freedom House. The meeting was used to talk about the topics of media freedom and observance of human rights.

The interlocutors concluded that the regulatory professional associations needed to protect the profession of journalists from those polluting the public scene.

 “The freedom of speech is an elementary human right additionally protected by the Constitution, but also an integral part of being of civilised societies. Today we are facing new challenges how to make the freedom of speech be also followed by responsibility – both professional and personal. Those are new challenges for which we need to find an institutional and general social response, in order to protect free, investigative, professional, and objective journalism”, said President Krivokapić at the meeting.

During the meeting they said that Freedom House was intensively following the state of affairs in the media and observance of human rights, and that only through joint efforts could systemic solutions be reached, which would be a guarantee and protection of the profession and of personal dignity.