Bosnia never had bigger friends in the White House than it does today, but it is unlikely that the country’s political leaders will manage to work together to make good use of this opportunity, former Chairman of Bosnia’s Council of Ministers and Foreign Affairs Minister, Zlatko Lagumdzija, told N1 on Monday.

Lagumdzija said that he spoke to many influential people about Bosnia during his recent visits to the United States.

He said he enabled meetings between several BiH officials and Jeffrey Sachs, the President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

“He was ready to cooperate because he liked Sarajevo,” he said.

Lagumdzija explained that he has contacts with “established Democrats,” stressing that Bosnia has a “historic chance” with the new U.S. administration.

“Joe (Biden) will not do anything for us instead of ourselves,” he said, arguing that there were never people in the White House who are as deeply familiar with what is going on in Bosnia and Herzegovina as Biden and US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.

“They truly support BiH as one state and society of common values. They are there to guard us while they are there. We don't have any other friend as powerful as they are,” he said.

However, Lagumdzija said he is not optimistic when it comes to whether Bosnia will be able to make use of that friendship.

He said that the leaders of the three main ethnic parties in the country, Bakir Izetbegovic, Dragan Covic and Milorad Dodik, as well as Presidency member, Zeljko Komsic, are the “owners of our destinies” and that they can make good use of friendship with the US only together.

“Since they will not, the only chance is that we will get rid of the four of them together in a year,” he said.