The Serb member of Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency expressed support for Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in his talks in Washington, adding that should the White House demand that Serbia grants Kosovo recognition, it would also raise the issue of the status of Bosnia’s Serb-majority Republika Srpska (RS) region.

Milorad Dodik’s statement came after Serbian Finance Minister, Sinisa Mali, said that the U.S. is asking for Serbia to recognise Kosovo as an independent state.

“We don’t want to believe that such a superpower as the U.S. would allow itself for new misunderstandings to arise from under the roof of the White House, and such an offer would mean just that. We do not believe that the United States would sacrifice the stability of the entire region because they have invested so much to stabilise the situation here,” Dodik said.

“A paper seeking recognition of Kosovo's independence would automatically also raise the issue of the status of Republika Srpska, the independence of which was discussed by the United States while the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was still ongoing,” he said.

The U.S. is not ready to open up another issue in the Balkans just two months ahead of the presidential election, he argued.