Bosnia and Herzegovina has strongest guarantees of the West for its own survival than any other country in Europe, professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Zagreb, Dejan Jovic, told N1, adding that no one, including Serbia, would recognise independence of Republika Srpska, Bosnia's Serb-majority region, if it seceded.

“BiH is under the patronage of the West. When I hear that people in BiH fear conflict and the disintegration of the country, I think that there is no enough of awareness of what type of guarantee the West gives to the survival of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Jovic.

He stressed that people in the country should know that BiH is “not only a symbol of the West in 1992 but also of a success in 1995.”

According to him, the ideas of the secession of Republika Srpska are illusionary.

“They know it and that's why they are not declaring independence,” Jovic noted.

As for the vote in the UN General Assembly on Russia's invasion in Ukraine, he said he did not expect such outcome of the vote a month ago, adding that this makes changes in the position of some actors both in the European Union and globally.

“Serbia made a step from its previous statement which was more the position on which Serbia built its foreign policy in the long run as military neutral,” Jovic explained.

According to him, it would be best for “small countries” such as Bosnia and Herzegovina to stick with the “silence policy” because anything else could jeopardise its internal stability.

“It would be best for BiH to avoid this issue. BiH has its foreign-policy sovereignty and can be neutral if that's decided,” he added.

Jovic also said that Russia's interests are currently linked to the countries that are not member states of the NATO, which means Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The interest of Russia dropped after North Macedonia and Montenegro joined NATO, he added.

“If crisis escalates to a large-scale conflict between Russia and the West, other fronts in political sense will open at contact points of the West and Russia. It is in the best interest of BiH and Serbia that conflict in Ukraine ends as soon as possible, and doesn't spread outside Ukraine,” explained Jovic.

Speaking of the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and speculations about possible war in the country, he said these are malicious comments coming from malicious people.

“There are those who secretly hope for it so they can turn the previous one, which ended in a result they were not satisfied with, into something else. We talk too much about war in BiH,” Jovic concluded.

According to him, the Western Balkan countries must join the European Union together and in an accelerated way, so they can avoid a possibility of blocking each other's EU path.