Serbia Cancels Expulsion Of Montenegro Envoy

Belgrade, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th Nov, 2020 ) :Serbia revoked its tit-for-tat decision to expel Montenegro's ambassador on Sunday, the prime minister said, to ease tension between two neighbours.

Montenegro declared Serbia's envoy persona non grata on Saturday for "interfering in Montenegro's internal affairs" in remarks he had made about history, sparking a similar move by Serbia.

Montenegro proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2006, but tensions around national identity are still haunting the tiny Balkans nation.

"We decided that Serbia already tonight unilaterally revokes the decision on expelling Montenegro's ambassador," Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic told reporters.

She spoke after meeting President Aleksandar Vucic and consulting Montenegrin Serbs.

Belgrade wants to extend "the hand of cooperation and friendship" to Montenegro, Brnabic said.

The latest dispute came as Montenegro's new pro-Serb government is due to be sworn in.

Prime minister-designate Zdravko Krivokapic pledged that his cabinet, due to be installed on Wednesday, will work on "healing Montenegro's relations with Serbia".

"The outgoing regime, even in its last days, is not refraining from the polarisation of society and the deepening of divisions," he wrote on Twitter Meanwhile, President Milo Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) labelled the expulsion of the ambassador expected because he was continually "belittling Montenegro".

Ambassador Vladimir Bozovic on Friday called a 1918 assembly -- which decided Montenegro should lose independence, join Serbia and become part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes -- a "liberation".

In a 2018 resolution, Montenegrin lawmakers symbolically annulled the decisions of the 1918 assembly.

Relations between Belgrade and Podgorica further strained since three opposition coalitions -- dominated by the pro-Serb nationalistic camp -- won a majority in an August election.

After the election, supporters of the pro-Serb coalition gathered in their thousands to celebrate, waving Serbian flags and chanting nationalistic songs.

The vote came in a year that started with large protests over a law that could give Montenegro the ownership of monasteries run by the Belgrade-based Serbian Orthodox Church.

Djukanovic accused Church leaders of trying to "Serbianise" Montenegro.

Ethnic Serbs make up 29 percent of Montenegro's population of 620,000, official figures show.