Serbian interior minister Ivica Dacic and his Montenegrin counterpart Jusuf Kalamperovic met in Belgrade on October 1 to start talks on a dual citizenship agreement between the two countries.

Montenegro, formerly partnered with Serbia in a short-lived “state union” after the disintegration of Yugoslavia, is cautious about such an agreement because it hopes to be included on the Schengen visa exemption list and does not want to be seen to be handing out passports indiscriminately.

Kalamperovic said that the talks had started at an “inopportune time” but he was sure that an agreement could be reached.

It would be a problem for Montenegro if the country set non-restrictive criteria for issuing Montenegrin passports, he said that Montenegro had a small population with many Serbs, Croats, Muslims and Albanians and said that if dual citizenship was conferred with no restrictions, almost 55 per cent of Montenegro’s population would have two passports.

According to a report by Serbian news agency Beta, Dacic told journalists that the talks had “started in a fair fashion”.

Dacic said Serbia proposed that dual citizenship be offered without setting any conditions, that is, without requesting that one of the citizenships be given up.

Serbia's proposal envisaged that a citizen would perform military service, vote and be held accountable at his/her place of residence.