The Council of Ministers (CoM) of Bosnia and Herzegovina has tasked the Foreign Ministry to resume talks with the Russian institutions in charge to enable a temporary display of the Charter of Ban Kulin in the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Charter, which allowed Dubrovnik residents to trade freely throughout Bosnia, is the first diplomatic document written in the old Bosnian language and is the oldest work written in the Bosnian Cyrillic script as such. Two copies of the Charter remained in Dubrovnik and the third, thought to be the original, was stolen in the 19th century and now resides in the museum at the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.

Display of the Kulin Ban Charter in the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina would be of exceptional importance to the improvement of relations between Bosnia and Russia, and would enable Bosnian citizens to get acquainted with one of the most valuable cultural assets of the country, the CoM said.