The situation between Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks in BiH is not going in the right direction but there is ample room for cooperation, Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said Wednesday commenting the recent meeting with the leader of the most powerful Bosniak party in Bosnia – Democratic Action Party (SDA), Bakir Izetbegovic.

He noted that he received Izetbegovic as a “leading politician from the Bosniak political corps in Bosnia.”

“We will not stop there, I want to inform the Croatian Government and the Minister of Foreign Affairs about that. We could have had this meeting a year ago. Mr Izetbegovic came now, I'm glad about that. I think that the space for cooperation between Bosniaks and Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina is quite large, but this it’s not going well at the moment. Of course, this should not be to the detriment of Serbs, I will inform Mr. (Milorad) Dodik about it and motivate them all to try, as much as possible, to meet together,” Milanovic said about the meeting.

When asked what was the role of former Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, who was also present at the meeting, Milanovic said that Mesic proposed the meeting to him, but that he was the initiator.

He pointed out that the situation in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated Republika Srpska (RS) entity was not the topic of the meeting, nor was the announcement of the establishment of the Republika Srpska army.

Earlier this week, Milorad Dodik commented on the BiH Constitutional Court’s decision annulling the RS law stating that forest on the territory of that entity belongs to the entity, and not the state, said that the RS will withdraw from the agreement on the establishment of the state-level judiciary and the Armed Forces of BiH.

“What is a fact is that the army is not provided by the [Bosnian] Constitution. The army of Bosnia and Herzegovina does not exist, there is some command staff and some soldiers. Mr Dodik is in a way hostage to the situation in the RS and the elements and people who are more radical than him. I don’t think he’s radical at all, but at some point, it gets a little frivolous. It's like me threatening Slovenia with an aircraft carrier. Firstly, I would never threaten Slovenia, secondly, I cannot talk such nonsense,” concluded Milanovic.