July 19 (SeeNews) - The friendship and the alliance of Montenegro and the USA is strong and permanent, the government in Podgorica said on Thursday, following comments by US President Donald Trump that defending the small NATO member-state could theoretically cause a world war.
"We build friendships, and we have not lost a single one, and at the same time, we are able to boldly and defensively protect and defend our own national interests," the Montenegrin government said in a statement.
The statement was issued after Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, "Montenegro is a tiny country with very strong people...They're very aggressive people. They may get aggressive, and, congratulations, you're in World War III."
In today's world, it does not matter how big or small you are, but to what extent you cherish the values of freedom, solidarity and democracy, the Montenegrin government also said in the statement.
"Montenegro is proud of its history and tradition and peaceful politics that led to the position of a stabilising state in the region and the only state in which the war did not rage during the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia," it added.
Montenegro became the 29th member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in June 2017. Its accession represented NATO's first enlargement since April 1, 2009, when Albania and Croatia joined the Alliance.
Montenegro, with a population of around 680,000, remained part of a union with Serbia after the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1992. In 2006 the country declared independence after a referendum.
The country started the process of Accession to the European Union in November 2005.