The Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina has not asked for any assistance from NATO, said Milorad Dodik, the President of Bosnia's Serb-majority region Republika Srpska, stressing that this is why he proposed that the Presidency rejects the assistance that the alliance approved for the country.

“Bosnia and Herzegovina is a funny and sad country with other providing help when nobody asked for it. Only the Presidency is competent for the issues of military and security, and neither this nor previous composition discussed or asked for any help from NATO,” he said.

The statement comes days after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced support for Bosnia, Georgia and Moldova and strengthening of their defence abilities, resilience and interoperability with NATO.

Dodik assessed the announced support as the interference with Bosnia's internal matters, and that NATO is allocating assistance that nobody knows about or what will it be used for. According to him, this only shows how deep is the division within BiH.

“BiH needs something else that NATO does not have. Obviously, importing of weapon to BiH from NATO programme is not a commitment of Bosnia's bodies and a joint decision of everyone. Maybe there are those who beg for something around the world all the time, but there are no such decision,” said Dodik, the Bosnian Serb politician who strongly objects Bosnia's NATO membership.

He suggested to the alliance to support Bosnia's constitutional structure instead of behaving “arrogantly” towards the bodies of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“I propose that the Presidency passes no decision on accepting it and that we show we are at least a little sovereign country,” he underlined.