The "primary homework" for Bosnia after the coming general election is the country’s NATO accession process, the head of the Atlantic Council of Bosnia, Dr. Dijana Gupta, told N1.

Citizens are mostly in favour of NATO accession, as well as institutions, she said.  

“I think NATO is the primary homework in the upcoming election, and that we need to follow through with everything we have signed,” Dr. Gupta said, pointing out that Bosnia’s leaders signed the final part of the Membership Action Plan (MAP), a key process in the NATO accession process, in 2009, and that the process has not moved forward much since then.  

“This is a sign that we did not do our work properly,” she said.  

It is a political issue, Gupta said, adding that other regional countries are making better progress toward NATO and EU membership.  

“Somehow we have really become an isolated country,” she said.  

There is still no consensus in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated semi-autonomous entity, Republika Srpska (RS), over NATO accession, and local media should be more responsible and inform citizens of the benefits of NATO membership.  

Bosnian Serb politicians have traditionally been opposed to Bosnia joining the alliance over NATO’s help to Bosniaks during the 1992-1995 war and the NATO bombing of Belgrade in 1999.

Speaking of Bosnia’s priorities, Gupta said that “peace and maintaining it in this region,” would be one of them.

“We have maintained it in a fragile way, but even countries that are stronger than Bosnia cannot secure their peace anymore,” she said, adding that Bosnia must turn to collective security solutions, and that NATO is the best option for the country.