Becirovic in Dayton: BiH needs constitutional reform to ensure stability and progress

Becirovic expressed gratitude to the organisers for the opportunity to address the audience on behalf of BiH and thanked NATO member states for their longstanding support, assistance, and friendship over the past three decades.

He emphasised that Bosnia has made significant progress since regaining independence in 1992, following the dissolution of Yugoslavia, and becoming a full member of the United Nations.

“From 1992 to 1995, during the brutal aggression, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was the only subject of international law. The Dayton Peace Agreement confirmed our country’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity,” Becirovic stated.

He stressed that BiH is now on the doorstep of the EU and NATO, underlining that these are the country’s unanimously adopted strategic foreign policy objectives.

However, he warned that the current implementation of the Dayton Agreement has failed to eliminate threats posed by separatist ambitions and nationalist projects, particularly from the leadership of the Republika Srpska entity. “Paradoxically, the most destructive anti-Dayton actions are occurring as we commemorate its 30th anniversary,” Becirovic noted.

He further accused Republika Srpska’s leadership—backed by Moscow and Belgrade—of launching a “brutal attack” on Bosnia’s constitutional order in late February of this year.

“That attack on the core provisions of the Dayton Agreement is still ongoing and represents a serious threat to peace and stability,” he warned, adding that the current crisis in the country is primarily a security issue.

The Presidency member called on NATO allies to help safeguard the peace established by Dayton: “Don’t allow Russia to open a second front in the Western Balkans.”

He concluded that Bosnia and Herzegovina needs a comprehensive democratic transformation based on the individual as the fundamental political subject, civic democracy, the multiethnic nature of the state, and the implementation of European Court of Human Rights rulings.

“There must be no place for ethnic federalisation or further ethnic divisions. Our vision is a united, democratic, and lawful Bosnia and Herzegovina, fully integrated into the Euro-Atlantic family,” Becirovic said.