Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency said addressing the entity parliament of Bosnia's Serb-majority entity on Monday that “the vital interest of Republika Srpska was violated” with the trade and partnership agreement with UK that the Presidency had on agenda earlier this month and that the entity is being "dragged into" recognition of Kosovo.

The three-member Presidency voted on the agreement earlier this month but Dodik invoked the mechanism known as the protection of the vital national interest, objecting the proposed document.

The Serb Presidency member, who was elected in the Serb-majority entity Republika Srpska, had said the matter would be forwarded to the entity parliament and that he believes the National Assembly would reject the deal as well.

Addressing the Assembly's 32nd special session that convened at his request, Dodik said he also believed the agreement was “dragging Republika Srpska into recognition of Kosovo.”

According to him, there is a joint stance on this matter among Republika Srpska's “most important institutions and ministries” that the agreement does not honour the status of Republika Srpska, which led him into invoking the vital national interest mechanism.

“Every decision and agreement that diminishes or does not define the adequate role of Republika Srpska it has under the constitution and laws is inadmissible for me,” he stressed, adding that no ministry that he has consulted declared positively on the agreement.

“They all had objections and said that Republika Srpska was not adequately involved in line with the constitution and its competencies,” said Dodik.

As one of the issues concerning the document, Dodik mentioned the Bosnian language – one of the official languages in which it would be concluded.

“The agreement also mentions Republic of Kosovo without a reference to the UN Security Council Resolution on status of Kosovo. And this was the reason why I found and asked for this to be specified as established in the international practice,” said Dodik, noting that other two members of the Presidency refused to discuss this matter.