President of the Serb-majority entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Dodik, has confirmed that last week he flew to the Croatian island of Hvar for a meeting with Croatian President Zoran Milanovic aboard of a helicopter used by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Speaking to local media, Dodik also commented on the political developments in BiH, the country's European path and the relations with Moscow.

“That helicopter which Vucic uses, is our at regular overhaul. I had asked Vucic to give me it (for that occasion) and there is no problem,” Dodik said in the interview which the Banja Luka-based Glas Srpske newspaper published on Monday.

The Bosnia Serb leader also said that this was a civilian helicopter not a military one.

Dodik met Croatian President Zoran Milanovic while he was on the island of Hvar on 25 July.

The office of the Croatian President called this event “a working meeting”.

“At a working meeting on the island of Hvar, President Milanovic and Mr. Dodik discussed the current situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its relations with its neighbour, the Republic of Croatia. In this context, the two leaders particularly discussed the need for establishing functional and efficient government in BiH that will ensure the equal participation of the legitimate representatives of all three constituent peoples,” said the press release issued by Milanovic's office after his meeting with Dodik.

However, the meeting elicited various reactions especially due to the fact that the meeting was not in the Office of the President and that Dodik arrived in Hvar aboard the helicopter owned by Serbia.

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In his interview with the Glas Srpske, Dodik called Milanovic “an interesting interlocutor.”

Dodik also spoke about the talks of the ruling coalition at the state level that his SNSD is a part of, noting that the in addition to the set of the EU-related laws, the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina should also include in its agenda in the end of August the issue of foreign judges in the Constitutional Court of BiH.

According to him, a task force should present a solution to this matted by the end of August or the beginning of September, noting that “realistically” this could be done even earlier.

Dodik said he was neither an optimist nor a pessimist about it.

“Everything that is done at the level of BIH is a very difficult process. There are three sides with many factions,” Dodik explained, adding that his intention is not creating a problem to any other side but to return the authority to the Constitutional Court of BiH.

As for BiH's EU path, he said that the EU is not what it used to be and that he no longer believes in the Europe that had his trust. According to him, Europe is currently in a “sort of a regression,” which considers the decrease in population and deindustrialisation due to the laws that ban the state intervention into the real sector, which causes huge industries relocating to the US.

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Dodik stressed that Republika Srpska cannot consume the EU's financial assistance, for giving up on its own strategic principles.

“If we are not visible, we're not interested in EU, why would we engage in processes that reduce our autonomy? We are not naïve, the western world is not the only place for financing today,” said Dodik, adding that getting something from the West would mean having to conduct changes in society. “If we lost something we have, we would never get it back again, unless under one option that I don't even want to mention. We're not giving Republika Srspka away. And they understand that in Brussels,” he said.

Entity president also emphasised good relations with Moscow, noting that anytime he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin he never asked for anything.

“The Westerners always ask for something, the Russians only ask how can they help,” according to Dodik.