Bosnia’s Council of Ministers Chairman Denis Zvizdic said he told the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras that receiving the candidate status for EU accession and the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) activation would be the most important messages for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Zvizdic met with the Greek Prime Minister within the ‘Mostar Does Not Forget Friends’ event where Tsipras will sign the ‘Mostar Peace Charter’ with his Montenegrin colleague Dusko Markovic. He thanked Tsipras for the support his country provided to Bosnia in the past 20 years.

“I want to thank Prime Minister Tsipras for coming to Bosnia and attending the anniversary of the opening of the Old Bridge. Several topics that are important for Bosnia, the Western Balkans and our relations with Greece were in the focus of our discussion. I familiarised the Prime Minister with activities undertaken in Bosnia in relation to our EU integration process and I have clearly pointed out to Tsipras that this is the most important foreign policy objective of our country,” Zvizdic said, adding that Greece is a great advocate of Bosnia’s EU accession.  

“Greece is our great friend and a supporter of European Bosnia and Herzegovina. I expect further quality cooperation. We believe that we can significantly increase the scope of our economic cooperation and we will definitely go in the direction of connecting our businessmen much better,” Zvizdic concluded.

Today’s Old Bridge of Mostar is a rebuilt 16th-century Ottoman bridge that crosses the river Neretva and connects the two parts of the city. The Old Bridge stood for 427 years until it was destroyed on 9 November 1993 by Croat military forces during the Croat–Bosniak War. Subsequently, a project was set in motion to reconstruct it; the rebuilt bridge opened on 23 July 2004.

Bosnian, Montenegrin, Greek and Macedonian prime ministers will sign the Mostar Peace Charter as part of the traditional ‘Mostar Does Not Forget Friends’ event on Monday, organised by the Centre for Peace and Multiethnic Cooperation.