Speaking at the Diplomatic Forum in Antalya, Turkey, the Bosniak and Bosnian Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency expressed completely different views on the country’s future in terms of potential NATO membership.
Milorad Dodik, who is also the leader of the ruling party in Bosnia’s Serb-majority Republika Srpska (RS) entity, stressed in his speech that it is not possible to compare the events in Bosnia and Herzegovina with those in Ukraine.
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“I do not agree that Bosnia and Herzegovina has anything to do with Ukraine and the events there. The nature of the conflict is not the same. I think that the conflict in Ukraine is the result of a global balance of power and strength and that Ukraine is collateral damage. Bosnia and Herzegovina had its internal problems, it had a civil war, a conflict between national groups, and that disqualifies any possible comparison,” he said.
The Bosnian Serb Presidency member said that BiH is “an unfinished country” and that the international community has been present there for far too long in order to try to “impose their vision of Bosnia and Herzegovina” which prevents the country from responding to challenges.
“For that reason, Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot stand on its own feet, because it has never been left to itself in peace,” he said.
He also rejected the idea of a conflict breaking out in BiH.
“This story of a war was provoked from inside and outside to draw attention to BiH in order to put pressure on new political solutions,” he said.
Dodik also reiterated his refusal to accept the authority of the High Representative of the international community in BiH, Christian Schmidt, who is tasked with overseeing the civilian implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement.
“There is no High Representative for us because he was not appointed by the UN Security Council. It has nothing to do with Schmidt personally. Also, for us, NATO is an unacceptable organisation in terms of our membership inside,” said Dodik.
Presidency member Sefik Dzaferovic, on the other hand, spoke about the obligations of NATO in preserving peace in BiH.
“NATO has stopped the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and NATO has helped to establish peace, and according to the Dayton Peace Agreement, NATO has an obligation to protect peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The most important thing at this moment is that all of us within Bosnia and Herzegovina respect the Dayton Peace Agreement and that we respect 27 years of implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement. All the laws we have passed in Bosnia and Herzegovina are laws that have been passed by consensus of all of us with the help of our friends from the international community,” the Bosniak Presidency member said.
As for the war that took place in BiH, Dzaferovic opposed Dodik’s statement that this was purely a civil war.
“The most important thing is to respect what we have today, which means that we cannot say, as Dodik has just said, that there was a civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, that it was a conflict of the people because that is not the case. These things were determined completely differently by international documents. It was clearly stated that it was an international conflict with the aim of dividing Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he said.
Dzaferovic said that BiH’s top priorities are EU and NATO membership, stressing that this is confirmed in documents that BiH signed off on in the past.
“Bosnia and Herzegovina should do everything in its power to gain candidate status, start negotiations and become an EU member as soon as possible. Also, the crisis in Ukraine, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is something that has left the whole world surprised. After the 1990s, in the former Yugoslavia, in Bosnia and Herzegovina in particular, after the genocide, we said never again, and here it is happening. Of course, that united the West. Bosnia and Herzegovina is part of the West,” he said.
Dodik said that BiH’s RS entity, as well as neighbouring Serbia, will not join NATO.
“Republika Srpska and Serbia will not join NATO and that decision will not happen. NATO does not need such a BiH, completely unorganised, at all. As far as membership in the European Union is concerned, that is our goal, but the EU has more and more problems within itself. That membership is important and we would like it to be accelerated,” he said.
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