Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic, and Milorad Dodik, the President of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska entity (RS), visited the southern town of Trebinje on Tuesday and addressed their cooperation and relationship in a joint speech.

“We are not Bosnian Serbs, we are Serbs,” Dodik said.

He stressed that “Serbia is what he cares for,” and that he is working towards making the Drina river less and less of a border between BiH and Serbia – in hope that one day this border will completely disappear.

“With his engagement and humanistic approach towards the RS, this man (Vučić) raised the level of our cooperation (…) It is a fact that we are one nation. A nation that lives with one heart and soul,” he added. The cooperation between Serbia and the RS has been better than ever, he said.

“Long live the RS, long live Serbia, long live the Serbian people,” the RS President finished his speech.

Vučić then took the stand.

“With respect to the integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, nobody can bar us from loving the RS, and we love it as much as you love Serbia,” the Serbian President told the crowd in the Serb-dominated town.

Vucic and Dodik spoke about their cooperation and stressed that Serbia will do it’s best to help the people of the RS with their infrastructure as much as it can. Dodik “knows how to ask for things”, Vucic said – “and not everything at once, a little bit when he comes to Belgrade, a little bit when I come to Trebinje, a little in Mostar.”

“We agreed that a little place, Baljci, where they say they have no waterworks, needs 300.000 Euros. Serbia took on that cost. When you are told Serbia promised something (…) that promise is fulfilled within seven days. We are not rich either, we have lots of problems, but we are doing much better than we used to,” he said.

He also promised Serbia would fund the construction of the Tjentište – Foča road.

“There is a lot of hard work ahead of you, but we will always stand behind our people with respect towards others,” he said. “We can do everything together, but at the same time, we want to remain on our land. We want people to stay in their homes, in Trebinje, Bileca, Gacko, Ljubinje, Nevesinje and every other Serb places in Herzegovina.”