Montenegro, Serbia Plan Joint Embassies

The Foreign Ministers of Montenegro and Serbia, Igor Luksic and Ivica Dacic, will meet in Belgrade on Tuesday to discuss establishing joint embassies on the so-called Nordic model.

“Luksic will to Belgrade and we will try to solve it," Dacic said, according to Serbian media reports on Monday.

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivan Mrkic initiated the embassy-sharing idea in December 2013 on the grounds that it would cut the costs of maintaining a diplomatic network.

The Nordic model refers to the fact that Scandinavian countries often share diplomatic premises.

Montenegro's Foreign Ministry signed a bilateral agreement on joint diplomatic and consular offices with Macedonia in 2013.

Based on an earlier agreement, from 2007, Serbia already represents the interests of Montenegro in more than 40 countries in which Podgorica has no diplomatic missions. Montenegro has similar agreements in place with Croatia and Bulgaria.

Montenegro's Foreign Ministry said the new arrangements with Serbia could contribute to greater cost-effectiveness and improved efficiency of the work of diplomatic and consular offices.