Montenegro President Summons Security Council Over ‘Destabilisation Threats’

Jakov Milatovic addresses the European Parliament in Strasbourg, June 2026. Photo: EPA/OLIVIER MATTHYS. President Jakov Milatovic’s office said on Friday that he has called the heads of the country’s security sector Defence and Security Council after allegations by Prime Minister Milojko Spajic that the country faces “hybrid threats” from two of its neighbours. Spajic claimed that officials from at least two countries in the region are involved in coordinated activity aimed at destabilising Montenegro and undermining its path towards European Union membership. Milatovic’s office said the security chiefs will be asked to provide precise information on Spajic’s allegations, as well as a comprehensive assessment of the country’s security situation. Spajic said on Thursday that Montenegro had “serious operational security information” that threats would accompany the country’s expected progress in opening new EU negotiating chapters. Montenegro is currently seen as the frontrunner among Balkan states to become the next EU member. “According to our information, such activities are aimed at destabilising Montenegro, with the expected support of certain political actors and part of the media scene in our country,” Spajic posted on X. On Friday, Montenegrin newspaper Vijesti reported that Serbia and Albania are the two countries referred to by Spajic. Vijesti quoted an unnamed source who said that some key players in the region were unhappy with Montenegro’s rapid progress toward European integration and wanted to slow it down. Another anonymous source quoted by the newspaper claimed that a senior government official was vulnerable because of compromising information that could be used by foreign powers. The source suggested that the official’s political party might leave the ruling coalition as a result. Milatovic’s office said that the president was concerned by the reports, and that “the public has the right to know which official this is”. But it added that serious security issues should not be used to score political points. “Issues concerning the security and stability of the state must be addressed responsibly, based on facts and through the institutions of the system,” it said. The warning did not stop some prominent figures connecting the security issue to responses to the death on Thursday of the Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic. After parliamentary speaker Andrija Mandic stated that he had sent condolences to the former general’s family, the head of Montenegro’s Islamic Community, Rifat Fejzic, asked if politicians who “mourn war criminals [are] in collusion with this hybrid war?” Albania’s Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Ferit Hoxha has rejected the suggestion that his country was part of any “destabilising scenario” in Montenegro. Posting on X, Hoxha insisted that the allegations could not “artificially create problems between our two countries”. “Although no formal accusations have been articulated against Albania, I wish to state clearly and strongly that Albania is not, and cannot be, part of any destabilising scenario, whether in Montenegro – a neighbour, friend, partner, and NATO ally with whom we share the same EU membership goal – or anywhere else,” he wrote.