Bosnia’s Serb-majority region of Republika Srpska (RS) expects that the future government of Montenegro will reaffirm an earlier request to establish special ties between the RS and Montenegro once it is formed, the Serb member of the tripartite Presidency, Milorad Dodik, said during his visit to Belgrade on Friday.

Dodik mentioned that RS authorities have sent that request to Montenegro's current President Milo Djukanovic about a  decade ago and that the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement leaves the possibility to establish such special relations.

The Bosnian Serb leader pointed out that the parties that won the recent election in Montenegro are emphasising the need to respect international obligations.

He said he spoke to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic about the developments in Montenegro and the new government there and that the fact that neither the RS nor Serbia interfered in that process was pointed out at the meeting.

“But nobody is saying that there are no expectations. My expectations are that the new government in Montenegro will primarily choose Belgrade and Banja Luka as the first destination to visit in the region. But we see that this is not the case. This is their choice,” he said.