Bosnia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed it will not pursue any measures to expel diplomats from the Russian Federation, regardless of the recently adopted Foreign Policy Strategy which obligates Bosnia to follow such restrictive policies toward non-EU countries.
The Ministry regretfully noted that dangerous chemical agents, which have been banned under international conventions, have been used on European soil, adding that it attentively follows and analyses developments in regard to the expulsion of Russian diplomats from some European Union countries.
“No country, international organization or institution has requested from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia to apply such measures in solidarity with the policies of those countries or as a way of harmonizing Bosnia's foreign policy with theirs,” the local news agency, Srna, was told.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said that 18 countries have so far announced they will expel Russian diplomats in response to the alleged involvement of Moscow in the Salsbury nerve gas attack. Croatia and Macedonia are among the countries that have stood by Great Britain and that have expelled Russian diplomats.
Why would Bosnia and Herzegovina – a country that does not have a unified position on the issue and does not even belong to the Union – take such radical measures against foreign diplomats?
“When we take into account all internal repercussions that may arise from this and the fact that not all EU countries have a harmonized stance on the proposal by Great Britain, I think it is best for Bosnia to stay neutral for now,” said Denis Hadzovic from the Center for Security Studies.
“When the EU decides on a unified stance on this issue, Bosnia should seriously think about whether it should follow the EU example or, as many times before, stand by the Russian Federation,” he added.
But even if the EU does reach an agreement on the issue, Bosnia will most likely not join in on any sanctions against Russia. This was made clear in the letter the Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency, Mladen Ivanic, sent to the President of Bosnia's Republika Srpska entity.
“I am urging you to stop inventing and insinuating that I was intending to impose sanctions against Russia,” Ivanić wrote to Milorad Dodik. “This is not the case and it will not be the case as long as I am a member of the BH Presidency, even if it would mean halting the country's path towards the EU.”
The Croat member of the Presidency, Dragan Covic, vocally the biggest advocate of Bosnia's EU path, agrees.
“Why would we follow the stance of the EU if the EU itself does not have a common stance? Try to find an issue on which the Union did have a common stance recently. In some regards, we are ahead of the European Union,” Covic said a few days ago.
“The EU makes it’s on foreign and security policy decisions and there are more than 20 such decisions concerning Russia. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia have since 2014 never supported any of those positions, as opposed to Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia etc.,” Hadzovic emphasized.
In an extensive release sent out a few days ago, the Russian Embassy in BH stated that the actions of the Western countries’ in regard to the “Skripal case” – which they say was fabricated – violate the norms of international law and the general practice of international relations, “as well as common sense itself.”
“Naturally, we are running a detailed record of all that, and when the time comes, those guilty will inevitably be brought to justice,” the release states.
