Bosniak Presidency member Sefik Dzaferovic assessed as “contradictory” the statement of Russian Ambassador in Bosnia Petr Ivantsov, who commented on a stalemate in the government formation in the country on Monday and suggested that all issues should be put aside until the government is formed.
Following a meeting with Milorad Dodik, the Serb member in Bosnia's tripartite Presidency, the Russian diplomat said that the bickering over the Annual National Programme (ANP), a document the country is expected to send to NATO, should stop so that a new government is finally formed – almost a year after the election.
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The government formation has been in a deadlock for ten months due to deep political disagreements on whether the country should join the NATO or not. The Bosniak and Croat Presidency members refuse to vote the new prime minister, who is supposed to come from the ruling Bosnian Serb party, because the party leader, Milorad Dodik, objects the country's path towards the membership in the alliance.
The leaders of the three parties which won the election signed an Agreement containing principles for forming the government on August 5 in an effort to overcome the stalemate, but the main issue, the ANP, is vaguely defined in the document.
The central issue remains unresolved while the 30-day deadline set in the agreement is approaching.
“We don't need an ambassador, not even one of the Russian Federation, to tell us what we should do here in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Russian Ambassador should respect the laws of this country as I do,” said the Bosniak Presidency member.
“And his statement is contradictory, in its first part he calls for respecting the Dayton Peace Agreement (international peace treaty which ended the 1992-95 Bosnian war and contains the country's Constitution) and the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and then he says the ANP should be put aside,” he added.
Speaking to media after the meeting with the Serb leader, Ambassador Ivantsov suggested that all issues should be put aside until the government is formed.
“That needs to be put aside when speaking about forming the government, and other things, such as socioeconomic issues and the judiciary, should be talked about,” Ivantsov said.
