Global perspective Human stories

Montenegro gains Security Council endorsement for UN membership

Montenegro gains Security Council endorsement for UN membership

Per Stig Møller, Foreign Minister of Denmark
The Security Council today endorsed the newly independent Republic of Montenegro’s bid to join the United Nations, bringing the world body one step closer to admitting its 192nd Member.

The Security Council today endorsed the newly independent Republic of Montenegro’s bid to join the United Nations, bringing the world body one step closer to admitting its 192nd Member.

Following discussions yesterday on the country, which held a referendum on 21 May to become independent from Serbia, the Council adopted a formal presidential statement recommending that the General Assembly admit Montenegro. The Assembly is expected to act on the matter next Wednesday.

“We look forward to the Republic of Montenegro joining us as a Member of the United Nations and to working closely with its representatives,” said Per Stig Møller, Foreign Minister of Denmark, which holds the Security Council’s presidency for the month of June.

If admitted, Montenegro would become the latest country to break away from what was originally the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which dissolved during the Balkans wars of the 1990s.

Former parts Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia joined the UN in May, 1992. Approximately one year later, in April of 1993, the General Assembly decided to admit as a Member of the UN “the State being provisionally referred to for all purposes within the United Nations as ‘The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’ pending settlement of the difference that had arisen over its name.”

The “rump” Federal Republic of Yugoslavia gained membership in 2000, and in 2003 officially changed its name to Serbia and Montenegro.

The latest country to join the UN was Timor-Leste, which became the 191st UN Member State on 27 September 2002.