Republika Srpska (RS) and Serbia will continue to act together and give a single response to all challenges, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik said on Thursday following a meeting with the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic.

According to Srna news agency, the two leaders met to discuss the strategic issues regarding the survival of Serb people. 

The meeting was held without prior notice.

“Any attempts to humiliate Serbia and its state and national interests are unacceptable today. Republika Srpska and the Serbs, in general, care a lot about Serbia being respected and affirmed in terms of its interests,” Dodik told reporters after meeting Vucic in Belgrade.

Milorad Dodik is the Serb member in Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency, where he also represents RS, Bosnia’s Serb-dominated semi-autonomous entity.

The Bosnian Serb leader who often advocated Republika Srpska’s secession from Bosnia and its merging with Serbia said there can be no “artificial barrier” on the Drina river, which is a natural border between Bosnia and Serbia.

Dodik also commented on the issue of Kosovo, the region which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but which Serbia still disputes.

“We are all Serbs and although many foreigners don’t understand that we are equally interested in the issues such as Kosovo (issue) just like all people who live here,” said Dodik. According to him, attempts to accelerate reaching of a solution for Kosovo come from those “who would like to create solutions that are not in line with stances and interests of Serbia.”

Dodik informed Serbia’s President about the situation in Bosnia, telling him that the post-election government formation is being deliberately obstructed. The agencies carried Dodik as saying that there is a wish to rule out the Serb political representation achieved in the last election.

Bosnia consists of two semi-autonomous entities, RS which is dominated by the Serbs and Federation (FBiH) shared by the Bosniaks and the Croats. Besides having their own governments, each entity and three major ethnic groups are represented in the state institutions as well.

Dodik’s Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) won most of the votes in RS, paving the way for its representatives to get seats in the State Parliament.