North Atlantic Council

Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic will meet with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at the alliance's Brussels headquarters on Wednesday.

Vucic will also meet with North Atlantic Council representatives, the alliance has announced.

Image from: bezbednost.org

BRUSSELS - Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic will visit the NATO headquarters in Brussels in late November to meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the North Atlantic Council, the NATO headquarters officially confirmed to Tanjug on Tuesday.

NATO's mission to monitor refugee flows in the Aegean Sea and combat people smugglers is the brainchild of Turkey, Ankara has stressed, rejecting reports that NATO vessels deployed in the Aegean have not yet started operating in Turkish waters because Turkey has not yet given permission.

Calling it a "fabricated" report, Ankara has denied the accuracy of a report which has suggested that NATO vessels deployed in the Aegean Sea to help stop the flow of migrants to Europe have not yet started operating in Turkish waters because they have not been given permission yet from Turkey.

Despite the promising tone of messages sent last week from NATO leaders in Brussels, the bulk of negotiations in overcoming territorial sensitivities between Greece and Turkey on how their ships will help counter the criminal networks smuggling refugees into Europe across the Aegean Sea still lies ahead, with essential questions to be solved according to Turkish officials.

NATO is willing to support a German, Greek and Turkish request for help in monitoring Turkey's Aegean Sea coast for migrant smugglers, Pentagon chief Ashton Carter said Feb. 11.  

"NATO and all the parties at the table this morning indicated a willingness for NATO to support and be a part of that operation," Carter said at the 28-nation alliance's headquarters in Brussels.

At their meeting, which is taking place in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday, foreign ministers of the NATO member countries invited Montenegro to start accession talks to become the 29th member of the Alliance.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg hailed the decision as "historic", identifying it as a good day for Montenegro, the Western Balkans and the Alliance.

US Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday said he strongly supported Montenegro's membership of NATO, adding that the doors of the alliance were open.

Attending the Brod-Brijuni summit in Zagreb, Croatia, Biden said that Balkan NATO members Croatia and Slovenia had both shown what was possible through reform and reconciliation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the downing of the Su-24 warplane near the Turkish-Syrian border on Tuesday will have a negative consequences on the relations between Moscow and Ankara.

Putin identified the attack as a crime and highlighted that Russia will not tolerate it, TASS news agency quotes him as saying.

NATO officials were greeted with protests and an invitation to visit anti-government demonstrators during a high-level visit to the Montenegrin capital on Wednesday.