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Japan–Montenegro relations refers to the bilateral relationship between Japan and Montenegro. Japan recognised Montenegro on 16 June 2006, stating then that "the policy of the Government of Japan [is] to attach importance to the peace and stability of Western Balkans countries including Montenegro".[1]
During the Russo-Japanese War, volunteers from Montenegro were encouraged to fight in the Russian Army in Manchuria.[2] However, Montenegro was not mentioned in the 1905 peace treaty and a technical state of war was presumed to exist between the two countries. In 2006, Japan made the gesture of recognising Montenegrin independence following its secession from Serbia and declared then that hostilities were over.[3] [4] [5] [6]
Montenegro has an honorary consulate in Tokyo, but there is no resident Japanese representative in Montenegro.[7] However, the country has been recipient of Japanese development aid, and in 2017 the Japanese ambassador to Serbia visited the Montenegrin Prime Minister.[8]
Montenegro has minor trade relations with Japan. In 2017 it imported goods worth €19 million from there and exported €2 million worth.[9] According to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, there was a very small community of 27 Japanese nationals in Montenegro in 2017.[10]
In 2016, Montenegro expelled 58 foreigners (of whom only four were Japanese) linked to the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, which was behind the deadly nerve gas assault on the Tokyo subway in March 1995. A police statement said they had "received information from [Japanese] partner security services showing that a group of foreign nationals, who were numbers of a closed religious group, were staying in Montenegro".[11]