Today’s evening, this March 31st, 2007 in New York City, USA, took place at the Lotus Club — in the heart of New York City’s most exclusive and fashionable Manhattan’s Upper East Side — an investiture ceremony and a charity gala organised by the Grand Chancellery of the Royal House Orders of Montenegro.
As part of the event, His Royal Highness Prince Nicolas Petrovitch Njegosh, on private visit to the city, personally wished to honour the work of the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Montenegro to the United Nations, His Excellency Mr. Nebojša Kaluđerović, by investing him with the insignia of Grand Cross in the Order of Danilo I.

H.E. Mr. Kaluđerović was decorated by the Crown Prince as both a member from an old Montenegrin family and the first appointed Montenegrin Special Envoy following the Proclamation of Independence on June 3rd [1] — later accredited Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary on August 11, 2006, celebrating through this symbolic investiture the historic event of Montenegro’s admission as 192nd Member State of the United Nations, on June 28, 2006.

On the occasion of the solemn ceremony of handing over to Ambassador Kaluđerović of his diploma of Grand Cross in the Order of Danilo I, His Royal Highness Prince Nicolas delivered the following speech:

The place of Montenegro in the Family of Nations is symbolised by his flag, which now flies in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York, on the East River. This flag, emblazoned with the double-headed gold eagle, is for all now the symbol of our restored Sovereignty, but it is also the symbol of my own family! This is a proud chapter in our country history, and it was important for me that it be marked by the granting of the Order of Danilo I to our first Ambassador in New York.
Ambassador Kaluđerović has done so much to promote Montenegro and to ensure our presence here, where he is well-known and appreciated from a long date.
I am proud that he now wears this important decoration, which has deep roots in the traditions of our independent and Sovereign State and in the Montenegrin collective memory.

During the ceremony at the Lotus Club, Crown Prince Nicolas was accompanied by his wife, Princess France Petrovitch Njegosh. The spouse of the Ambassador, Mrs. Mojca Kaluđerović, and their 18-year-old son were also received by Their Royal Highnesses.

H.E. Ambassador Kaluđerović was born in 1955 in Nikšić, Montenegro.
He entered the diplomatic career by accident, wishing first to study architecture at the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina; but due to a mishap in his university admission paperwork, he finally attended and then graduated from the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, Serbia.
Fresh out of university, he joined the Secretariat for Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1980, becoming Special Advisor for multilateral affairs to the Federal Foreign Minister in 1991, before resigning in 1992 in protest over President Milošević’s policy.
Moving to the Russia Federation, he worked for a civil engineering firm from 1994 to 2000.
After six years of “self-imposed exile”, and with Slobodan Milošević out of power, he was asked in 2000 by his friend and colleague, Prime Minister Filip Vujanović, to come back in Montenegro. From 2000 to 2001, he served as Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, then from 2002 to 2003 as Chief of Cabinet to the President of Montenegro, and from 2003 to 2004, as Chief of Cabinet to the Prime Minister.
Since 2004, Mr. Nebojša Kaluđerović has been serving exclusively at the United Nations in New York, first as Permanent Representative of Serbia-and-Montenegro, and after the Proclamation of Montenegro’s Independence in June 2006, as Special Envoy of the Government of Montenegro, until his accreditation as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary on August 11, 2006.
H.E. Ambassador Kaluđerović plays violin and equally excels in painting. Fluent in English and Russian, he is married and has one son.