The document which Bosnia will send to NATO does not predict any future membership in the alliance, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik said on Tuesday after the Presidency reached a consensus on forming a government, responding to his political opponents who accused him of betraying Serb interests with the agreement.
“It even openly says in that document that these are reforms and that they do not predict future membership. It says that for every step toward membership in NATO a decision by the Presidency and the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina is necessary and that the decisions will be made in accordance with the stance of all government bodies at the state level,” Dodik told RTRS, the public broadcaster in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated semi-autonomous entity of Republika Srpska (RS).
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The Tuesday agreement between Dodik and his Bosniak and Croat colleagues in the Presidency seems to have put an end to the political crisis which has been plaguing the country since the October 2018 election.
Bosnia did not have a new government for about a year, and ministers from the previous mandate were serving until a new one was formed.
Bosnian Serb opposition party leaders, Mirko Sarovic from the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) and Borislav Borenovic from the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP), said on Tuesday that Dodik “pushed Republika Srpska into NATO” and betrayed Serb interests.
Dodik, however, said his political opponents are angry because their parties will no longer be part of the Council of Ministers.
“I think that they should stop being angry. I see that they are furious. I understand that, because they have been serving posts in Bosnia’s government institutions without justification for a long time,” Dodik said.
“This destroys their privilege to work on many things which are not in accordance with the Republika Srpska National Assembly,” he added.
