Bosnia's Deputy Foreign Minister and Chair of the Commission for Cooperation with NATO Josip Brkic met in Brussels with the Committee of Deputy Permanent Representatives of NATO (NATO DPRC), where he expressed gratitude to DPRC members for their commitment and the opportunity to discuss and exchange information on the implementation of activities related to the 2023 Reform Program.

He expressed satisfaction with the fact that NATO maintains its focus on dialogue with the candidate countries, despite the very complex security moment and that it remains strongly committed to security and stability in the Western Balkans.

As Chair of Bosnia's Committee for Cooperation with NATO, he reported that a 2023 Reform Program draft was prepared based on the contributions collected from the country's relevant institutions.

When it comes to the implementation of the activities of BiH institutions in 2023, the Foreign Ministry prepared the Information on the implementation of activities of BiH institutions in 2023, which was delivered to the NATO headquarters in Brussels.

He noted that the BiH institutions continued to carry out activities, i.e. reforms, as determined by the Reform Program.

The Chair assessed that the Information on the degree of implementation in the political, economic, defence-security, resource and legal sense confirmed there is a strong foundation for continued cooperation between Bosnia and Herzegovina and NATO.

Regarding Bosnia's defence policy, Brkic informed NATO DPRC that the implementation of projects related to the modernization of arms, equipment and infrastructure through the NATO DCBI and EU EPF programs is underway, per the Defense Review and the Development and Modernization Plan of the Armed Forces of BiH.

He added that it was very important that BiH is mentioned in the NATO Annual Report for 2023, which the Secretary-General presented on March 14 this year.

Brkic pointed out that Bosnia is ready to engage in meaningful cooperation with NATO on a wide range of security issues and announced that in October of this year, the NATO Partnership 360 Symposium will be held in the country, at which Allies, partner countries and international organizations can discuss common security and other challenges facing the societies, Bosnia's Foreign Ministry stated,