Not one of the statements or agreements which the Chairman of Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, made or reached during his visit to Russia were agreed on with the other two members of Bosnia’s Presidency and do not represent the official stance of the country, Dodik’s Bosniak colleague, Sefik Dzaferovic, said on Sunday.
Speaking to ‘Sputnik’ in St. Petersburg, where he was participating in the International Economic Forum, Dodik spoke about providing gas to Bosnia’s Serb-majority semi-autonomous entity of Republika Srpska (RS) and praised Russia’s stance towards Bosnia.
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But according to Dzaferovic, no agreement of that sort can have any consequences for anyone within Bosnia and Herzegovina as it was not discussed by all three Presidency members. Such decisions can, according to Bosnia’s Constitution, only be made through consensus in the Presidency.
The Bosniak Presidency member said that making such an agreement without that consensus may represent a breach of the 1995 Dayton Peace Treaty which ended Bosnia’s war.
“Nobody in Bosnia and Herzegovina should have anything against connecting to international gas lines. However, the issue of gas and connections to international lines is in the exclusive capacity of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he said.
For it to be realised, a law must first be adopted on the state level and an independent state operator must be established, he said.
“I call upon Dodik and all other political leaders in Bosnia to do this as soon as possible and with it to enable a stable gas supply for Bosnia,” he added.
