There is no reason for halting the progress of joining NATO, as membership in the alliance will bring security, stability and foreign investments that will keep the youth in the country, Bosnia’s Defense Minister told N1 on Monday.

“I am convinced that the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina want peace, stability and security and that this could be a basis for investments that would make the youth stay here,” Minister Marina Pendes said.

“In that regard, I believe that there is no real reason for why the national annual programme should not be adopted,” she said.

The Annual National Programme is a “tool for cooperation between NATO and a country,” she explained.

“We set a certain number of goals and we want to achieve and implement those goals in cooperation. We set short-term and long-term goals ourselves,” Pendes said.

Beginning December NATO foreign ministers approved the Membership Action Plan (MAP) for Bosnia and Herzegovina, the last step before full membership in the alliance.

But NATO membership is a topic that divides Bosniak, Bosnian Croat and Bosnian Serb representatives, with the former two groups wanting the country to join, while the Serbs firmly oppose it.

Most Serbian and Bosnian Serb politicians dislike NATO since the alliance’s bombing of Bosnian Serb artillery positions during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war and its airstrikes on Serbia during the 1999 Kosovo conflict.

The Serb-member of Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency, Milorad Dodik, who previously wanted Bosnia to join, has changed his mind and has been firmly rejecting membership since he has taken over the office in October last year.

He has been arguing that Bosnia should stay militarily neutral as long as Serbia is and that NATO membership would cost.

“Bosnia has a legal obligation when it comes to its NATO path,” Pendes said, adding that “everyone should take that into consideration.”

“I believe that we should completely implement the conclusions of the Presidency,” she said, referring to a previous decision of the Presidency that said the country should join NATO. “Every membership has its costs, it depends on what the benefits would be,” she said.