Bosnia’s Defense Minister urged on Friday political parties to take the next step toward joining NATO and activate the Membership Action Plan, saying this would “contribute to the stabilisation of security in Bosnia.”
Bosnian leaders agreed years ago the country should join NATO but last year Bosnian Serb politicians changed their mind and now refuse to allow Bosnia make one more step toward membership. They say they want to do whatever Serbia does regarding NATO.
Serbia declared military neutrality.
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“I am sorry that we lost a certain amount of time, as the political parties which are now in power, most of all in the Council of Ministers (Bosnia’s government), had already four years ago reached a consensus on activating the (NATO) Membership Action Plan,” Minister Marina Pendes told N1 upon returning from a NATO conference in Washington.
“It opens up opportunities for additional investments,” she explained, adding that Bosnia and the entire region is facing the problem of not only youth but entire families leaving for Western Europe.
“That is a huge problem which we all must face and find the best possible solution to it – how to stop it? We can do that through reforms which we need to implement in the organisation of our country,” she said.
Pendes said that experience from surrounding countries shows that joining NATO strengthens the path toward EU membership and that when handling this issue a solution must be found that suits all of Bosnia’s peoples.
“Our Euro-Atlantic path has no alternative. We just need to find the best possible recipe for a consensus on these issues,” she said.
There cannot be an agreement without dialogue and it would be unwise for anyone to take any steps that could destabilise the region, she concluded.
