NATO is looking forward to providing the support to Bosnia and Herzegovina and its authorities in the implementation of reforms contained in the Defence Programme and Review from 2016, the NATO HQ Sarajevo told N1.

The Sarajevo HQ recalled that the Alliance received the Reform Programme that Bosnia's authorities sent in December 2019, which was accepted as a good basis for further cooperation between the NATO and Bosnia.

“NATO HQ Sarajevo is at disposal to the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina in providing further support to the reform of defence and security sector of Bosnia and Herzegovina. NATO highly appreciates the political dialogue with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Allies will be glad to welcome the officials of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the NATO HQ for the talks on cooperation between the NATO and Bosnia and on regional cooperation,” said the Sarajevo HQ.

The State Presidency adopted in June 2019 a conclusion on officially applying for the Membership Action Plan (MAP) and the Alliance positively responded from the Tallinn Summit the following year.

In December 2018, NATO state member foreign ministers gave a green light to Bosnia and invited the country to submit the first Annual National Programme (ANP), a comprehensive document that refers to the planned reforms in various fields, including political, security, legal and defence sectors.

Sending of the document has been on hold for months due to the political disagreements, and political parties eventually agreed the country would send to Brussels a document called the Reform Programme, which the NATO accepted.