A coalition of parties representing Bosnian Serbs in the Government said that it would not allow Bosnia to enter NATO while neighbouring Serbia is not part of the international alliance.
Bosnia's path toward joining NATO has been one of the main issues at the centre of a feud between two Bosnian Serb political factions for years.
Since the 2014 elections, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), led by Milorad Dodik, has been in power in Republika Srpska (RS), Bosnia’s semi-autonomous entity dominated by the country’s Serbs.
But the Alliance for Changes, an opposing coalition of Bosnian Serb parties, won enough votes to represent Serbs at the state level in Sarajevo.
While the SNSD’s Dodik is President of the RS, Mladen Ivanic, from the Alliance for Changes, is a member of Bosnia’s tripartite state Presidency.
NATO remains unpopular with Serbs in both Serbia and Republika Srpska since the alliance launched airstrikes against the Bosnian Serbs during the 1992-95 Bosnian war and against the Serbian military in 1999 during the conflict between Belgrade and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
The two Bosnian Serb political groups are in fierce opposition and both are competing for votes at the upcoming general elections in October. Their opposition to NATO is part of their campaigns, and they have been accusing each other of bringing the country closer toward the alliance.
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“Republika Srpska has mechanisms to prevent entering NATO against its will,” the Alliance for Changes said in a press release, adding that if the Serbs would be outvoted on the matter, they would initiate a mechanism to protect their vital national interest, which would allow them to veto Bosnia’s entry into NATO.
In October last year, Republika Srpska declared its military neutrality, which means the country will not participate in any military alliances such as NATO. The move follows neighbouring Serbia’s ongoing policy.
In its Thursday release, the Alliance for Changes accused SNSD’s Nebojsa Radmanovic of signing a formal request for Bosnia to initiate its Membership Action Plan, a key step toward NATO integration, when he was a member of the state Presidency in 2009.
