Bosnia Presidency Chairman Milorad Dodik does not beg or ask for the sanctions that US government introduced on him to be abolished, Dodik's office said on Wednesday following his meeting with the State Department's senior official.
“Chairman of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Presidency agreed with the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the State on developing the new roads for new relations between the USA and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but he emphasised that as far as he is personally concerned he does not beg or ask for the sanctions that the US introduced on him to be removed,” said Dodik's office.
Speaking for media on Tuesday, State Department's Matthew Palmer said his country would continue the cooperation with all three state Presidency members despite sanctions against one of them.
Related news
“He (Dodik) is still under US sanctions and him becoming a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina is not one of the criteria for releasing him from the sanctions,” Palmer said. “Dodik knows what he is expected to do for the sanctions to be removed, and we would like to see him going in that direction.”
The Serb leader, former President of Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity and the newly elected member of the state Presidency, was blacklisted by the US authorities for what they assessed was a breach of the Dayton Peace Agreement, a peace treaty created at the international level, which ended the 1992-95 war in Bosnia.
For years, Dodik has been advocating secession of the Serb entity from Bosnia and its merging with neighbouring Serbia.
The sanctions that were introduced on him Dodik labelled as an act of the old and outgoing US administration.
During the Wednesday meeting with Palmer, he said he respected the USA as a powerful country and supported cooperation with it, and that he is committed to an open communication with the US officials.
Due to often foreign interventions in the country, Bosnia has lost a great deal of creativity and it has to be given a chance to reach an internal consensus on many issues, the Presidency Chairman's cabinet quoted him as saying.
Dodik also said he worked in line with his duties and not under pressures, adding that he was not a politician who would dramatically change his policies.
