(ANSA) - BRUXELLES - Regional forces that are against the "Europeanisation" of the Western Balkans "are getting stronger the closer that we are to our goals", "but they can't drive us away from our main path, that is that the Balkans should go along the path of EU and Euro-Atlantic integration", the President of Montenegro Milo Djukanovic, said today in Brussels during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

"I believe that the price that we are paying today in Western Balkans, related to the insufficiently high quality of life" depends on having lived "for a long time" "according to rules that are not European rules", Djukanovic said, blaming nationalist forces that "actually advocate the traditional way of thinking and would like to keep the situation of chaos", because "they it difficult to accept that we will in the future live according to the EU standards".

Djukanovic said that Montenegro used the first year of NATO membership to "show responsibility" and it was the "first target" before reaching "in the near future our second goal: to become a member of the EU".

When it comes to relations between Podgorica and Moscow, Djukanovic said that Montenegro's position on Russia "is absolutely clear: there's no dilemma in our country, we want to comply with foreign and security policy of the EU", he said.

Montenegrin President aims to "defend European values, to which Montenegro belongs" and, at the same time, "exit the bad environment" with Russian neighbors.