Chairwoman of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency Zeljka Cvijanovic paid a working visit to Zagreb on Thursday, where she met with her counterpart Zoran Milanovic and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. She said on this occasion that inflammatory rhetoric could cause serious problems in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Her comment came as a response to the statements by the Bosniak politician Bakir Izetbegovic and head of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina Husein Kavazovic, who named as “secessionist and retrograde,” the policy of Milorad Dodik, Bosnia's Republika Srpska entity President.

“Apart from such statements being a nonsense, inflammatory rhetoric could cause serious problems, and BiH is not a very stable country. Such statements are detrimental to Bosnia and Herzegovina and to building the relations that we are trying to put on the right track and to respect the Constitution,” said Cvijanovic.

As for the relations in the region, Cvijanovic said she was satisfied with intensified cooperation between these countries.

“Wherever someone can be a bridge of cooperation, they should do that,” she underlined.

The meeting with Cvijanovic “comes at the right time,” President Milanovic said, underscoring that the Dayton peace agreement was not a “transitional, turnaround or bypass route to what Bosnia and Herzegovina was a long time ago.”

The Dayton Accords are the foundation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and any interference in it will only cause trouble, Milanovic said, referring to the peace deal which ended the Bosnian 1992-95 war and established the country's constitutional system.

“This is the foundation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is also in the Croatian interest and I believe in the interest of justice and law,” Milanovic said addressing a joint news conference with Cvijanovic.

He said he was ready to discuss the “dignified status” of the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina with anyone who “shows the minimum common sense,” and added that he could see more common sense and good will in Cvijanovic and the political circle around her.

Cvijanovic, the Serb member of the Bosnian Presidency, and a close aide to Bosnian Serb leader Dodik, is the first woman to have been elected to the Presidency of BiH.

She said that she was committed to the Dayton agreement as “the permanent setting” and that all the constituent peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina — the Serbs, the Croats and the Bosniaks — should feel “good and comfortable” in that country.

“In order to feel good, we must be able to enjoy the rights we have under under the constitution,” said Cvijanovic.

The President of Croatia said that he saw Bosnia and Herzegovina as a future member of the European Union, but added that no country should be forced to join NATO.

“I can see Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republika Srpska is part of Bosnia and Herzegovina , as part of the West and that is the European Union. And NATO, if you agree to join it, because forcing any country to join NATO is against the interests of NATO. If not all people in Bosnia and Herzegovina are in favour of NATO, then you should wait,” said Milanovic.