Montenegro boasts of being a multi-religious country, and sees its small Jewish community of 300 as integrated into the fabric of society.
By CARRIE HARTMontenegro Ambassador Tamara Mugosa and out-going President Shimon Peres enjoy a laugh during their talks on bi-lateral relations.(photo credit: CARRIE HART)
At a June 11 ceremony at the President’s Residence, Tamara Mugosa, the newly appointed ambassador from Montenegro, walked the red carpet to meet President Shimon Peres and present her credentials. The national anthem of Montenegro, played by an IDF band, could be heard as Mugosa met a delegation from the Foreign Ministry in the entrance hall where the Chagall Windows are on display. Then Mugosa followed Peres into a reception room, where they discussed bilateral relations.Mugosa is a non-resident ambassador, and will attend to her obligations from Montenegro. In her new capacity, she spoke of transforming a diplomatic dialogue with Israel into diverse areas of cooperation.She feels that scientific innovation is the field in which both Israel and Montenegro can find the greatest possibilities for collaboration, also seeing the importance of tourism.“Israel is very interested in sending people to a new destination that Europe and the world are discovering.We have a lot of resorts that are worth seeing; a lot of history worth showing. But, also on the other side, we will be happy to have many more tourists from Montenegro discovering Israel.”Another field that Mugosa is looking into is agriculture, where Israel’s advanced methods could be implemented. She explained to Peres that, as a tourist destination, her small country needs to import a great deal of food. “So, we also see the possibility of cooperation in importing your technologies and your knowledge, in order to make our productivity in agriculture much bigger than we have so far.”Recently, there was an exchange of visits from agriculture ministers in Montenegro and Israel.Mugosa saw it as beneficial and productive for both countries. “They are developing projects in common and we hope to have a demonstration center of Israeli technologies in Montenegro soon.”Montenegro boasts of being a multi-religious country, and sees its small Jewish community of 300 as integrated into the fabric of society. Mugosa told the president that there is a new synagogue being built in Montenegro, as well as a Jewish cultural center.The ambassador acknowledged that Israel is a multi-religious center and multinational country, and praised Peres on a personal and state level for his achievements towards peace. Knowing that Peres will be stepping down and handing the presidency over to President-elect Reuven Rivlin in July, Mugosa spoke about the future. “We know that you will be active in the time to come, and we wish sincerely that your efforts [for peace] will come through very soon.”Mugosa then offered to host an event for the Peres Center for Peace involving young Palestinian and Israeli artists and sportsmen. She would like to do this event in Montenegro, as she feels that dialogue and confidence-building might be more successful if it takes place in another environment besides the Middle East. She told Peres, “We are open for the cooperation, and I hope that I will have many opportunities to meet you and to work on projects of that kind.”After their meeting, Mugosa stood at the entrance to the President’s Residence while the army band played “Hatikva.” Leaving the grounds, the ambassador said she knew she would be returning to the land often, to fulfill her dreams and that of her country – and the prospect of establishing greater ties of friendship with the State of Israel. –
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