page_title: Milo Đukanović
section_title: Presidency during the Kosovo War
hierarchical_section_title: Milo Đukanović / Political career / Presidency during the Kosovo War
caption_attribution_description: Secretary of Defense William Cohen (right) escorts President Milo Djukanovic, of Montenegro, into the Pentagon on Nov. 4, 1999. The two men will meet to discuss regional security issues in Montenegro, which is a state in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. File: 991104-D-9880W-042
context_page_description: Milo Đukanović is a Montenegrin politician who has served as the president of Montenegro since 20 May 2018. He served as prime minister of Montenegro in three governments from 1991 to 1998, as the president of Montenegro from 1998 to 2002, and as prime minister again from 2003 to 2006, from 2008 to 2010, and from 2012 to 2016. Đukanović is also the long-term president of the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro, originally the Montenegrin branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, which has governed Montenegro since the introduction of multi-party politics.
  When Đukanović first emerged on the political scene, he was a close ally of Slobodan Milošević during the anti-bureaucratic revolution and the dissolution of SFR Yugoslavia. His cabinet actively participated in the Siege of Dubrovnik. Đukanović supported Momir Bulatović's agreement on Lord Carrington's terms, which resulted in the 1992 Montenegrin independence referendum, where voters decided to remain in FR Yugoslavia. In 1996, however, Đukanović distanced himself from Milošević and the federal government, abandoning the traditional joint Serbian and Montenegrin vision in favor of an independent Montenegro.
context_section_description: Shortly after his inauguration in 1998, Đukanović told Gelbard and some foreign ambassadors about his vision of an independent Montenegro in the Gorica villa. Đukanović said that Gelbard and the ambassadors disagreed with him at the time, as they preferred Đukanović to work with the opposition in Belgrade.
  On March 24, 1999, NATO began bombing Yugoslavia. During the bombings, Jean-David Levitte claimed that Đukanović asked Bill Clinton for airstrikes to remove Milošević. Curious about Levitte's claim, Jacques Chirac called Đukanović to ask if the Clinton requests were true. Đukanović told Chirac that "every bomb that fell in Montenegro threatened to weaken my government." Chirac subsequently contacted Clinton and arranged limitations on airstrikes in Montenegro. Shortly after the bombings ceased, Đukanović oversaw the implementation of the Deutsche Mark as the new currency in Montenegro, replacing the Yugoslav Dinar.
  In a speech in June 2016, Đukanović told an audience that "1999 was a year of critical importance for the choice of an independent Montenegrin way. That meaning the rejection of the self-destructive war with NATO, and secondly, the implementation of the Deutsche Mark a few months later."
caption: Milo Đukanović in the Pentagon during November 1999, meeting with United States Secretary of Defense William Cohen.
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