The President of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity, Milorad Dodik, said on Saturday that the time has come for Serbs to form a “united response” to problems they face and that the RS is “the state of Serbs within BiH”.

Dodik, who was a guest speaker at the congress of the Socialist Party of Serbia in Belgrade, said that the Serb people should “remain outside the existing stigmatization and attempts to put the Serbs and Serbia and Republika Srpska on only one side”.

He said that it is important that Serbs, wherever they may live, “remain united around Serbia as the mother country and Republika Srpska as the state of the Serb people in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, according to RTRS.

He said that Serbs in Republika Srpska and Serbia, Montenegro and anywhere else must “raise their integration to a higher level”.

“I am proud of the fact that today Serbia and Republika Srpska have the best possible form of cooperation, thanks to the efforts of the leaders of both republics, and I am convinced that we understand and support each other more and more,” Dodik said.

He stated that the basic policy of the Republika Srpska is to connect as much as possible with Serbia.